The Inner Nature of Alphonse
by AdventureAddict
Summary: Al finally has his body back, but something about him isn't quite the same as before. It may not be easy being green, but it sure can be lots of fun! Teamfic with agent000
1. Chapter 1

_Well, you knew it had to happen sometime. Yup, that's right, agent000 and I are coauthoring a fanfic. Heh heh heh… Keep up with us, and you're in for one heck of a ride! Oh, and my author's notes will be in italics and agent000's will be in bold if she puts them in. _

_Well, unfortunately, I still have yet to find a garage sale that has Fullmetal Alchemist for sale cheap, so I still don't own it. And considering that it's winter, I probably won't find a garage sale for quite some time._

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I grinned and folded my arms behind my head as the train started slowly pulling out of the station, gaining speed as it went. I then looked over to Al, who was staring out the window hungrily at the passing fields.

"Hey, Al," I said, and he jerked to look at me. "Calm down, would you?" I sighed, trying to sound as reassuring as I could. I knew that I wasn't very good at it, but Al would understand me. He was my brother, after all.

"Come on," I pressed. "We're going back to Reisenburgh. We'll get to show Winry that you actually have your body back."

"But not yours," Al sighed as he turned to stare out the windows again. "I still think we should have kept trying to find another stone so we could get your body back. It's not fair."

"Al, you know how long it took us to get the first stone," I sighed exasperatedly. We had been over the same subject multiple times, and Al still didn't seem to get it. "I'm fine with my automail," I assured him.

Deep down, I knew that if we did go searching for the stone a second time, Al would just end up following me when I knew that he really wanted to settle down and have a normal life. I owed him that, at the very least, even if it wasn't what I really wanted to do. I knew I could deal with staying in one place for Al's sake. At least, for a couple of years.

"You're sure?" Al asked worriedly, looking back at me briefly. I smiled and nodded back at him. Sure, my automail could get a little annoying (and painful) at times, but it also had its benefits. I had never been able to make a weapon with my flesh hand. And I could throw some mean punches with my right hand. Al sighed and turned back to looking out the window.

"Hey, Brother?" he asked after a bit of hesitation, and I looked at him curiously. "Do you mind if I open this window a bit?" I shook my head, wondering why Al was so interested in the outdoors. He didn't usually act like this.

Then again, he didn't usually have skin to feel the breeze with. I grinned at my younger brother, and he grinned back before sticking his face close to the window. I laughed, glad that he was finally able to enjoy simple pleasures like the wind whipping across his face.

"I can't wait until we get back to Reisenburgh," Al sighed as he leaned back in the train seat. "Once we visit Winry, you and I should go for a nice long walk."

"A walk?" I repeated disbelievingly, raising my eyebrows slightly as I looked at Al. What had gotten into him? Sure, I went for walks on my own all the time, but those were always by myself and on a spur of the moment.

"Sure," Al smiled at me excitedly. "We could enjoy all the nice scenery. Reisenburgh has so many nice hills and trees."

Hills? Trees? I concluded that Al had lost his marbles. Usually he was excited to see Winry and Auntie again, not hills and trees. But then again, we never did really have time to just enjoy the beauty of Reisenburgh; we were usually on a tight schedule that didn't allow time for enjoying the scenery. I realized that maybe Al was right. Maybe it was finally time to calm down and take a few deep breaths. If anyone deserved it, it was us, right?

"Alright," I said hesitantly, and Al's grin widened even more. I smiled back, realizing that any walk was definitely worth it just to see him smile like that. Something about his smile just made me feel good deep down inside. Maybe it was the pleasure of making my brother happy; maybe it was because deep down, it secretly reminded me of my mom's smile. Either way, I would do anything just to see him smile like that.

"So, you wanna play cards?" I asked challengingly.

"Uh, sure," Al said, managing to tear his eyes away from the window again. I excitedly reached into my pocket for the pack of cards. I loved passing the time by playing poker.

"Huh. That's weird," I muttered as my fingers brushed against nothing but air. I reached my opposite hand into my other pocket, but still felt no cards. "I could have sworn I put them in my pocket," I muttered, bending my head down to look under the seat. All I came across was an old wrapper and dust.

I grumbled under my breath and pulled out my suitcase, quickly sifting through the contents. I always kept my cards in my pocket for train rides like this, so I had no clue where else to look. I was starting to think I must have dropped them on the road.

When I snapped the suitcase closed again, I noticed the mischievous smirk Al was trying desperately to hide. He squirmed slightly under my gaze, and I had a pretty strong feeling I knew where my cards had gone.

"Al, do you know where my cards are?" I asked innocently. He squirmed again, and I barely caught him managing to hide another smirk.

"Cards? What cards, Brother?" he said in a voice that was dripping with sweetness. It might have fooled someone else that didn't know him as well, but not me, oh no. And I wasn't about to just let this go, either.

"_My_ cards," I persisted with a grin. Two could play at his game. "The ones we use to play poker on the train. Do you know where they are?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," Al replied innocently, his eyes dancing in amusement. I rolled my eyes at the comment, knowing that just the opposite was true. I looked Al over quickly and noticed a square lump in his pocket.

"Yeah right, you little liar!" I growled with a grin before leaping towards Al. Al shrieked in protest and tried to push me away, but I had already managed to worm my left hand into his pocket. I felt the familiar rectangle pack of cards between my fingers and triumphantly pulled it out before backing away from Al.

"That wasn't fair," Al grumbled with a slight grin as I started shuffling the cards. I rolled my eyes and dealt us each a hand. As soon as I was clutching my five cards, I snuck a peek at Al. His face was drooping with disappointment, and I could barely keep myself from showing my excitement on my face. Now that Al wasn't in a suit of armor, beating him was going to be a snap. He'd never been very good at hiding his emotions.

We both took our turns trading our cards, and I was doing my best to keep my face calm. I'd gotten a good hand for once without cheating to get it. And judging by the look on Al's face, he hadn't gotten a good hand.

"Full House," I said proudly, revealing my cards to Al. Al's expression suddenly changed to a triumphant smirk, and he showed his cards to me. I could practically feel my mouth drop open in surprise.

"Royal Flush," he told me triumphantly, even though I could see the cards perfectly fine myself.

"Wha-? How did you-?" I stuttered, looking at Al disbelievingly. I had never seen him hide his emotions so well. Even when he was in the armor I could usually pick up on how he was feeling, but that time he'd had me completely fooled.

"Now arriving at Reisenburgh station!" the intercom cackled, interrupting me out of my confusion concerning Al. I shrugged and quickly packed up the cards, (making sure to put them in my pocket) then grabbed the suitcase and stood to leave.

Al and I were both off the train almost as soon as it had ground to a stop. I sighed as the familiar country air washed over me, cleansing my mind of all the large dirty towns we had been staying at recently. Here it was just so much cleaner and nicer, and just, well, _better_. I looked over at Al, and by the expression on his face, I figured he was feeling about the same way I was. It really was good to be home.

"Well, come on," I said after a silent minute or two. "Let's go show Winry and Auntie the good news." Al nodded and followed behind me silently.

Twenty minutes and three cups of tea later (okay, more like two since I hadn't touched mine), we were sitting in the Rockbell living room quietly. I was secretly hoping that Winry had finally finished with the waterworks. Her crying always made me get antsy.

"So Ed, if you still have your automail, I'm guessing that you want me to fix it up, huh?" Winry asked, rubbing at the corners of her eyes. I nodded gratefully. Automail would definitely distract her enough so that she wouldn't cry anymore.

"Okay, let me see," Winry sighed, motioning me over. I quickly walked over to her and let her roll up my sleeve. She was silent for a moment as she examined my arm, twisting it around to see it from different angles. She then pulled a wrench seemingly out of nowhere and whacked me on the head with it.

"Edward Elric!" she yelled angrily at me. "I slave to make you a masterpiece and this it how you treat it?! Look at this! Your arm's absolutely covered in dents! And it's filthy! And I don't think you've oiled this for at least three weeks!"

Four, actually, but I wasn't about to tell her that.

"Hey, at least it's all in one piece!" I yelled back, feeling my anger rising quickly. I had worked hard to make sure my automail wasn't destroyed completely, and now she was going to treat me like this?

"Yes, but it's just one step away from being in pieces!" Winry yelled back angrily.

"No it's not!" I retorted angrily. "It's working perfectly fine, see?" I raised my hand in a fist to show her just how well my arm was working. Stupid girls, they see one little problem and they freak out.

"Stop making problems less important than they really are!" Winry scolded, shoving me backwards onto the couch. She then pulled off my glove, pushed my sleeve up my arm, flipped a few switches and yanked out my arm forcefully. I winced, not from pain, but from the thought that her 'masterpiece' wasn't going to go back in as nicely as it came out.

"Did you have to take that out?!" I said angrily. I could remember plenty of times where Winry had done her maintenance with my automail still attached to my shoulder.

"Yes, I did," Winry said firmly. "This is way too messed up for me to work on it otherwise; I'm going to have to completely rewire it. And if not for that, then to teach you a lesson." I paled and sank backwards into the couch. Winry could be really scary when she wanted to be.

"Oh, and Ed?"

"Yeah?" I looked at her meekly, the fight having disappeared from me completely. I wasn't as good at fighting when I was off balance, anyway.

"Welcome home," Winry said softly, wrapping her arms around me with the automail still clutched in one hand. I froze and felt my cheeks start burning. She quickly pulled away from me and left the room while I kept staring at the floor. A quick transmutation and I could actuallymake a hole in the ground to crawl into…

Al snickered from across the room, and I snapped my head to look up at him. I was about to retort with something that I hoped would sound witty when a sharp whistle cut through the air. It took me a second to place it, but then I realized it was the teakettle Winry had left on the stove earlier.

"Could someone get that?" Winry called from another room. "I'm a little tied up at the moment." No doubt she'd already dove headfirst into her work. I sighed to myself.

"I'll get it," Al said quickly before trotting off to the kitchen. I settled back into my seat comfortably, as the high-pitched whistle slid down to a lower note and then stopped altogether. My ears stopped ringing just in time to hear a much worse sound.

Al's scream.

I quickly jumped to my feet and hurried to the kitchen, wondering what had happened. The last time I had heard Al scream like that was as I helplessly watched the Gate pull him away from me.

Dammit, Al!

What's wrong?" I asked as soon as I slid into the kitchen. "Did you burn yourself?" I asked, noticing the way Al was cradling his hand to his chest.

"I think so," Al said softly. I slowly pulled his hand away from him and carefully looked at it. His entire hand looked red and raw, as if he had rope burn. I gently touched the edge of his palm, and Al hissed in reply.

"Come on," I murmured softly, and led Al to the sink. I ran some cold water and carefully tested its temperature before carefully holding Al's hand under the water. "Now don't do that again," I scolded as I started putting together an ice pack for his hand. "You're not made of metal anymore. You can't just go picking up hot objects like that."

"I know, Brother," Al said softly as he took the ice pack from me. "I guess I wasn't thinking. Thank you."

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" I grinned at him, and Al grinned back weakly.

But deep down I was still worried. He had managed to get badly burned on his first day back in his own body. I was going to have to keep a closer eye on him if I wanted to make sure he wouldn't hurt himself.

After all, I'm the older one. It's my _job_ to take care of him, right?

* * *

_So what'd you all think? Wait, I know! If you liked it, then you can leave us a review so that we know just how much you liked it! There's a novel idea! And maybe if you leave enough reviews, then agent000 will feel really good and finish the next chapter quickly! Ain't reviews wonderful?_

_Word count: 2,380 (without author's notes) --woot?_


	2. Chapter 2

**This is agent000, or Melissa if you are familiar with or prefer to use my real name, hehe. I wasn't exactly sure what to write for this chapter, since I have a bad habit of rushing into the story way too fast, so I tried to follow Addict's example and just take the story slowly...hopefully it worked. Let me know. I'll likely be throwing in my traditional curveballs into the plot sooner or later, but new stories tend to take a few chapters to pick up, heh. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the story!**

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I shook my hand lightly as I walked out into the living room with Brother. The cold water had helped soothe the burn a bit, but it still hurt quite a bit. I hadn't expected the handle of the teapot to be so hot as to cause a burn that bad, but I guess that it just goes to show that I should listen when people tell me to be careful. I'd remember to grab a potholder next time, anyway. 

Winry was waiting for us in the living room. I guess that she had heard me scream and had decided to come and investigate, even though there really wasn't anything to worry about. Anyone could burn their hand on a hot pan. Brother and I quickly assured her that everything was fine, and she went back to her business of repairing Brother's automail.

I clapped my hands in front of me and lit up my face with a smile, almost feeling like a child again. "Brother?" I said, forcing him to look at me and raise an eyebrow at my behavior, though he had to have known by now that this was quite normal behavior for me. "When are we going for that walk you promised?"

He snorted in response, and then pointed to his chest. "That _I_ promised? It was your idea to go walk and look at the trees and the hills and the flowers..."

"I hadn't said anything about flowers," I said, interrupting him, "But that's a good idea!"

He rolled his eyes at me and waved his hand at me as if he was trying to brush off whatever disease I had that might be catching. He shook his head some more and then finally turned back to me. "Why do you want to go so much?"

I suddenly threw my arms around him and began to squeeze the breath out of the poor guy. "Please, Brother, I want to go so badly!"

"I didn't say we wouldn't go," he said as he freed himself from my grip, "I just wanted to know why."

I stood there and looked at him blankly for a couple moments. What could I say in response? In truth, I didn't really know the reason either, but I was beginning to feel a bit stifled being in the house. I had to get out. They day was so perfect, and we were letting precious moments of it tick away.

"I don't know," I finally said.

Brother rolled his eyes again, and then said, "Well, can't it wait until after I've got my arm back?"

"No, it can't!" I said, grabbing his one hand and pulling it toward the door, dragging the owner of the hand with it. "The day is so beautiful out, Brother, and we're just letting it slip by. We need to go out and see it while it's still young."

He finally offered a light smile, and he said, "Since when is your speech so poetic?" That just earned another blank stare from me, since I hadn't a clue as to what he was talking about. I guess that he saw that, because he finally chuckled and then said, "Alright, fine Al, whatever makes you happy."

I practically squealed with glee, or wait, I DID squeal with glee, and I turned tail and ran out the door, calling for my brother to follow me out.

He did so, but what first met his gaze was me lying on my back in the grass, soaking up the sun's rays with the most contented expression on my face. He snorted again, a bit awkwardly, and said, "So...um...where to?"

"Anywhere..." I said dreamily.

Brother rolled his eyes again, he was getting quite good at that, and put his hand on his hip. "It was you who wanted to go for a walk, Al, so where do you want to go? The forest? The hills? The valley? What?"

I lovingly rubbed at the grass beneath my fingers and said, "Somewhere where there's...Nature."

Brother threw his head back in a sigh. "There's nature all around us, Al, which part of it do you want to see?"

"All of it," I said. I spread my arms out contentedly to feel the ground beneath me, and then I rolled over and bolted up so fast that Brother didn't know what had hit him. I was running away from him so fast and laughing about it that Brother had to use all his energy just to kind of keep up.

I was still laughing when I reached the edge of the woods and plopped down by the base of a tree to catch my breath and to give Brother a chance to catch up. The run had felt so good. I hadn't remembered being in a body to be this invigorating, but it was wonderful.

I drew my knees up to my chest and sighed contentedly. Was there any way that Brother would let me stay out here tonight instead of sleeping inside the house? He wouldn't like the idea, I knew, but it wouldn't hurt to try and ask him, later, when the moment was right.

The wind picked up just slightly and rustled the leaves of the trees, creating a fine symphony orchestra directed by Mother Nature herself. The birds joined in with their twittering, and even some small rodents had decided to accompany them by chirping a merry little tune of their own.

Something tickled my hand. Thinking it was a bug, I quickly turned to look at it and possibly fling it away, but relaxed when I saw that it was only a little pink flower being jostled by the breeze. I hadn't noticed it growing up by the roots of the tree when I had first sat down, but now I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was just an ordinary flower, I knew that much, but something about it seemed irresistible to me.

As if on cue, something on the surface of the flower suddenly seemed to move. I couldn't see whatever it was clearly, as it appeared to be mostly transparent, like a ghost, but I couldn't deny its presence there. Did flowers have souls like we did, or was I just being silly?

The presence then seemed to lift itself off the flower and then hover in place, only a couple handbreadths from my face. Off of the backdrop of the flower, I was now able to make out the form of what appeared to be a little woman, a little translucent woman with wings, and she was staring at me!

The sound of heavy footsteps brought me out of my trance, and the little woman faded from view. I snapped my attention to the source of the intruding noise, and saw Brother running up to my tree, desperately trying to catch his breath.

I sat up straight and looked at him. "Brother, did you see that?"

"See what?"

"That little flower woman!"

He paused and stared at me for a moment before saying, "The...what?"

I excitedly pointed out the pink flower in front of me and tried to explain it to him in the best way that I could. "There was this little woman...in the flower...and she looked at me...and I looked at her...and...and..." I couldn't think of what else to say, in spite of my excitement, so I simply continued to try and grapple for words that weren't there.

Brother sighed. "Al, there's nothing there. You just imagined it."

"But, Brother, I saw her with my own eyes!"

"You're just tired from the trip," said Brother, "Let's go back to the house. Winry will probably be about done rewiring my arm by the time we get back."

I sniffed and stood up to walk back with him. I wasn't nearly as jovial as I had been when I had first come out. Brother didn't believe me. Even worse, he thought I was hallucinating, and it hurt. I slumped my shoulders and stepped into place beside him.

"Are you okay, Al?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, but I wasn't.

When we got back home, Winry was indeed almost finished repairing Brother's arm. Rewiring didn't take nearly so long as rebuilding, only a couple hours if she worked quickly and knew what she was doing, which being Winry, she always did.

"I'll be ready to reattach your arm in a few minutes!" Winry called from the workroom upon hearing us reenter the house. That girl has better hearing than Den, I swear. Brother and me both sat down on the couch to wait for her to finish. We still weren't talking to each other, even after that long walk back. The tension between us was rather awkward at the moment.

A few minutes later, Winry came into the room carrying a big metal arm with her. She was smiling, but Brother was grimacing, obviously anticipating the pain to come with the reattaching of his arm.

"Al," she said, holding the automail arm in my direction, "Hold this for me for a minute, will you?" I nodded and stretched out my hands to take it, so she quickly set it in my care and then turned to Brother to get his shirt off.

As soon as I'd touched it, however, the heat from the steel rushed into my hands and felt like it was going to burn away my flesh. I screamed and threw the arm away from me, not worrying about what damage I might cause it, because more than that had already been caused to me.

I brought my hands back around to look at them. They were both very red and raw, and looked like they were starting to blister. Tears were involuntarily running down my face, and every time I tried to speak, all that came out was a sob.

Brother grabbed one of my hands and pulled it toward him so that he could look at it. I still couldn't speak aloud because my tears were the ones in control at present, and the deeper the burn set in, the more childish I sounded.

"How hot was that automail?" Brother asked Winry accusatorily.

She put her hands up on a show of innocence. "It wasn't hot at all, or I wouldn't have asked him to hold it. I wouldn't try to hurt him, you know."

Brother didn't bother to answer her right at that moment, and instead pulled me back into the kitchen to run some more cool water over my hands. The water helped the stinging to subside and I finally stopped crying, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to use my hands much for the next few days.

"Are you okay now, Al?" said Brother.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Thank you."

"Good," he said, and then without another word, went into the living room. I shivered involuntarily. Was he angry with me for hurting myself again, or was he blaming himself? I rubbed a lingering tear out of my eyes, and then ran into the room to join him.

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_Wow, agent actually managed to take things slow. –falls- Well, at least now I get to write the reply! ;) Al is so cute! Remember to leave those reviews, everybody! Reviews are wonderful and make the world go round! You wouldn't want to make the Earth stop rotating and therefore cause another ice age just because you didn't review, right? That's what I thought. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Argh! I won an Edward Elric figurine on Ebay a while ago, and it still hasn't come in the mail! –slumps over computer- I want it to come sooooo baaaad… I wanna seeeeee it! Stupid mail people!_

_Oopsie, I forgot to put in a disclaimer last chapter. Well, agent and I still don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Especially considering that neither of us portray ourselves as cows. _

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I sighed and slowly sat back down on the couch, warily watching Winry get ready to put my automail back in. I normally didn't like the thought of her putting the automail in anyway, but seeing Al get burned by it only moments before made me even more nervous. 

What the hell was up with that, anyway? I had no clue why Al had gotten burned the way he did, especially since Winry was picking up the same automail only minutes afterwards without any problems. If a hunk of metal that large had been hot enough to burn human skin, then I knew there was no possible way Winry could be picking it up, unless she was made of metal herself. It would take much longer to cool.

I winced as Al walked back in the room, holding his hands at a slightly awkward angle so they wouldn't hurt as much. I had just decided to keep a closer eye on Al, and he went and got burned like that. If I did believe in a god, I would have thought he was out to get me.

"Ed?"

"Mmm?" I looked up at Winry, realizing just how absorbed in my own thoughts I had become. She grinned at me and hefted my automail onto her shoulder.

"Scoot over, Ed," she said motioning to the couch. "It'll make it easier for me to reattach this." I quickly moved to the side, knowing that I certainly didn't want to make reattaching my automail any harder for Winry.

She quickly sat down beside me, tucking her legs up beneath her and pressing one hand firmly against my flesh shoulder while the other one held the automail inches away from the socket in my arm. I shivered slightly at the coldness of her hand, but otherwise remained still. I knew from past experience that fidgeting only made it worse.

"Ready?" she asked me, and I nodded grimly. I looked quickly at Al, and realized that he was standing farther away than he usually did. Though I didn't blame him, considering what my automail had done to him the last time he had touched it.

"Okay, on three," Winry said slowly, and I sucked in a breath of air through my nostrils. "One… two… three!" I felt the all-too familiar searing pain rush through every part of my body, making my muscles tighten and back arch in reply.

I ground my teeth together in an attempt to keep myself from screaming, but then realized in a split second that I didn't have to worry about making Al feel bad at the fact that I could feel pain and he couldn't. He had his body back now, and I knew he could feel pain since I had just seen him experience it a few moments ago.

I loosened my lips and let forth the first automail-induced scream of my life, even startling myself a little. It felt surprisingly good to finally let it out, and it even managed to distract me from the pain a little.

When the pain finally stopped, I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the sofa, letting my arms hang limply. I could feel sticky sweat sliding down my brow, but didn't bother wiping it away.

"Okay, you're all set," Winry announced, tightening the last bolt. I let my eyes flutter open as I flexed my metal fingers a couple times. My gaze flicked over to Al, who was standing a safe distance away and looking at me worriedly.

"Al, are you okay?" I said softly, realizing my voice was a little sore from my scream. "You look a little… green." I had heard people say the same thing about others before, but I had never realized what it actually looked like. Al's skin had an almost unnatural greenish tint to it, as if he had somehow managed to get a grass stain on his skin.

"I feel fine, Brother," Al assured me quickly, though I didn't believe him easily. He looked sick, and I definitely didn't want to risk anything. I was about to protest to his assessment when Winry suddenly interrupted.

"Hey! I got this great game a while back, why don't we all play it?" she said quickly. Al and I both shrugged, and she excitedly ran off to her room to get it. I sighed and slowly started to push myself off the sofa. I then reached down and grabbed my shirt off the floor, carefully pulling it back over my head.

"You really don't look good," I said worriedly to Al. I carefully held my left wrist against his forehead to check his temperature, but Al just pushed me away with a slight smile.

"I'm_fine_, Brother," he insisted. I frowned slightly and looked closely at him. True, the only strange thing about him I could spot was the greenish tint to his skin, but that alone scared me.

"Come on in the dining room, you guys!" Winry called from the other room. "I got the game all set up!" I rolled my eyes and quickly followed Al into the other room.

It seemed like a typical board game. Each player has a little game piece that the move around the board after rolling the dice, and when they land on certain colored squares, they have to draw a card and do what it says. First to the finish wins.

"Winry, you go first," I said as I sat down in one of the chairs. "You're the one who suggested it, after all." Al nodded his agreement, so Winry shrugged and picked up the dice.

"Hey, Winry, what's that?" Al asked, looking down at the other end of the table. Winry and I both followed his gaze and saw a book sitting there innocently.

"That?" Winry said, reaching over and picking it up after she had rolled her dice. "I just finished reading this a few days ago. It's really good. Hey, an eight!" she said triumphantly as she looked at the number she had rolled. She quickly grabbed her game piece and moved it, eventually landing on a white space, which meant she didn't have to draw any cards. She grinned and handed the dice to me.

"Anyway, it's a good book," Winry continued. "It's all about this guy who everybody thinks is insane because he keeps talking about how faeries are real and stuff, but then it turns out that he's not really insane because the faeries actually are real." I scoffed, unable to keep it in. Yeah, right, that was _so_ realistic.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Al murmured softly before standing up and pattering off. I reached forward and moved my small metal game piece four spots forward and landed on the blue square. I then picked up a blue card and read aloud the words printed on it.

"You've discovered a swamp. Congratulations. Move back four spaces due to jammed tires."

"What the hell?" I scowled angrily as I moved my game piece backwards – right back to the beginning square. Winry laughed as I put the dice in front of Al's seat and crossed my arms with a huff.

"He won't be long," I assured Winry. "So, what about this guy who saw faeries?"

"No, no, he didn't _see_ faeries, he just knew they existed," Winry corrected. "Everybody can _see_ faeries. Well, except for the special ones, like wood nymphs and such." I rolled my eyes. Big deal. It was just some stupid fantasy book making stuff up.

"Anyway, this guy keeps trying to convince everyone that the faeries are real, but they won't believe him," Winry continued, either oblivious to my eye roll or choosing to ignore it. "But then the faeries get mad and decide to kidnap him before someone actually believes him. It sounds kinda silly, but it was a fun book."

"Ad since when are you into faeries and magic and stuff like that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. I usually knew Winry to be the type of person who would settle down with a book on automail mechanics, not fantasy.

"I just found it in a stack of granny's old books," Winry shrugged nonchalantly. "And I thought it looked interesting, so I read it. What's taking Al so long, anyway?"

Sometimes that girl's ability to switch topics astounds me.

"I don't know," I sighed, pushing myself out of the chair. "I'll go see." I quickly walked down the hall and rapped on the wooden door that led to the bathroom.

"Al? Hey, Al, are you okay? We're waiting for you to come back," I said into the door, trying to listen for some kind of sound.

"Go ahead without me," Al said quietly, and I jerked in surprise. His voice had sounded incredibly close and low, as if he was sitting with his back to the door. I didn't usually think of Al as the type to go off and sit in a corner by himself.

"Aw, come on, Al," I said gently. "Is something wrong?"

"I… I don't know," Al said hesitantly. "I've just felt kinda weird, that's all." I sighed and sank down to the floor with my back against the wooden door. I wondered if Winry was going to start worrying about where I had disappeared to, but I brushed away the thought.

"Hey, Brother?" Al said slowly, and I turned to look at the door as if I could see his face through the solid wood. "Would it be okay if… if I slept outside tonight?" I cocked my head curiously at the question.

"Why?"

"Because…" Al stopped and paused for a minute before continuing, "Because nature is just so… exquisite. And I don't want to miss a minute of it. I'm sick of staying inside like a caged animal. I want to go outside, I want to be free!"

"Okay, I get it," I laughed slightly. "You can sleep outside as long as you let me go out with you." Al was silent for a moment as he considered it.

"Okay," he said slowly. "But could you please try to be quiet, Brother? You're just so… discordant sometimes. Just let nature sing its own symphonies for once."

"Okay," I sighed with a smile tugging at my lips as I stood up again. I didn't know what was with the poetic speech, but I was a little funny to listen to. "Now would you please come back so we can finish our game?"

"Okay," Al agreed easily, and the door swung inward. I smiled at my brother before we turned and walked out to the dining room together.

"There you are, Al," Winry said with a relieved tone to her voice as we walked in and sat back in out seats. "I was worried something had happened to you. It's your turn." Al nodded and quickly rolled the dice.

"Twelve?" I gasped, looking at the dice in disbelief. Al flashed a toothy grin at me before turning to move his game piece.

"Agh!" Al cried out as soon as his finger had brushed against the metal. He quickly pulled his finger back, revealing a raw, red spot at the fingertip. I looked at it in disbelief before curiously reaching out and touching the game piece. It was perfectly cool.

"Do you want some water on that?" I asked Al worriedly, while wondering what the hell was going on. How could Al keep getting burned even when the things he was touching weren't hot?

"I'm okay," Al said, waving his finger back and forth a few times. I knew it was nothing compared to the burn he had gotten from touching my automail earlier, but it was still one more burn than I wanted on him.

"Wait a minute…" Winry said slowly. "Al, how did you say you got burned the first time?"

"The teakettle," Al said slowly.

"And the second time?"

"The automail, you know that."

Winry nodded quickly, and I started putting the pieces together. All of the objects that I had thought were completely random had one thing in common.

"They're all made of metal," I murmured softly, and Winry grinned triumphantly.

"That must be what your problem has been, Al," she said quickly. "You're just very allergic to metal. All you have to do is make sure you don't touch it and you'll be fine." Al paused, then nodded slowly before smiling gratefully at Winry.

I frowned as I concentrated on the theory. Sure, it did make some sense, except for thing: I knew I would remember if Al had an allergy that bad when we were kids. He'd been able to touch metal before; I could distinctly remember two metal robot toys we'd used to play with together.

I looked back at Al and frowned at the sight of his slightly green skin. And yet he continued to insist he felt fine. Something weird was definitely going on. My eyes widened as another, horrible thought popped into my head that wouldn't be pushed away, no matter how hard I tried.

Had I fouled up the transmutation somehow?

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_Le gasp! What's wrong with Al? …I know… -smirks evilly- _

_You'd better all be appreciative and review this update though. I stayed up until four in the morning to make sure it was done. So review! I'm off to check the mail for a package! –grumbles- Through the snow and blistering wind, all for a little figurine… The things I do for FMA…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry that I took so long to write this chapter. In my defense, I was moving, which can get quite hectic at times...but hey, I managed to get it written at all, which is pretty good when you're moving, right? Right, I thought so. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and remind Addict to write a disclaimer, since I don't feel like coming up with one of my own.**

_Heh, okay, I'll remember to put in a disclaimer. Ummm… We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist because then we'd have mobs of fangirls chasing after us and we wouldn't have the time to write fanfiction, moving or no. Ta-da! I remembered the disclaimer! _

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I couldn't help myself. Before I knew it, I was dancing around the house like some sort of maniac who had just had too strong a dose of caffeine. Everyone was staring at me funny, but at that moment in time, I didn't particularly care. Brother had given me permission to sleep outside tonight, and I couldn't contain my excitement. I hadn't expected him to agree, but he had, just so long as I let him accompany me, which I didn't see as a problem.

"Al...What are you doing?" asked Brother after a few minutes of quiet observance.

"Dancing."

"I know you're dancing," he said, "What I want to know is why."

"Because I'm so happy," I said.

He shook his head and turned away to look at Winry, probably to gauge her reaction and see if it matched his own. "Simple mind, simple pleasures, right Winry?" In response to that, Winry only gave a shrug.

I twirled in place a few more times with my arms stretched out to my sides to grasp the full sensation of the wind passing through my fingers, even if it was only indoor wind. I still consciously knew that the others were looking at me funny, but at that moment, I chose to just be oblivious to their reactions. This was my moment, and nothing could disturb it.

Nothing, that is, until I spun around and finally caught a good look at my brother's face. I stopped dancing right then and there and stared at him. He looked almost like he was ready to cry, but was resisting the urge as best as he knew how, which from my observation over the years was pretty good. A half-smile was still plastered on his face, so only a very close friend or relative would be able to see under that mask. Unfortunately for him, I was both.

"Brother, what's the matter?" I asked.

Brother suddenly looked up at me with a startled expression on his face, probably because he hadn't expected me to stop dancing so suddenly. His half-smile got even bigger and more fake just before he said, "Nothing's the matter, Al, I just thought it was funny that you enjoyed the idea of going out in nature so much."

"But that's not what's really bothering you, is it?" I said, continuing to probe.

"There's nothing wrong, Al!" he said, a bit more emphatically than he needed to.

"Then why are you yelling at me?"

"I'm not yelling at you!"

"What do you call it then?"

"I'm just raising my voice."

"That's the same thing."

"No, it's not!"

"Boys, boys!" Winry cut into our discussion with a wave of her hands and by raising her voice as well. "I don't know what's gotten into you two lately, but this has got to stop. If you have issues with each other, talk them out civilly, don't just yell back and forth."

"But I wasn't--" said Brother just before Winry cut him off.

"Whatever you were doing, don't do it. That goes for both of you." She turned and cast an eye in my direction, and then turned back to face Brother. "You two are all you've got; you need to be nice to each other."

"Yes, Mommy," Brother said in a slightly childish fashion.

Winry smiled. "Now, you children behave, because the next time you're going to get a whipping." She picked up her wrench and swung it for emphasis, making Brother visibly flinch. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight. Winry was pretty much the only one that could affect him that way, aside from Teacher, of course.

"Now run along, kids," she said as she pushed herself up from the table, "I've got some work to do in the shop."

"But aren't we going to finish our game?" Brother asked.

She shook her head. "Not until we can find a way to let Al play without getting hurt."

"We could always move the pieces for him," said Brother.

"What's the fun in that?" said Winry.

Brother shrugged. "True."

Winry chuckled. "Now run along, before I use Wrenchy on you."

As soon as we had gotten far enough away from the room that we left Winry in so that she couldn't hear us, I turned to Brother and said, "She named her wrench?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, she named it Wrenchy a long time ago."

"Why didn't I know that?" I said.

He smiled a sort of mischievous smile. "Maybe because you stay out of trouble enough to rarely get threatened by it."

I laughed at that. I couldn't help it. Brother was always getting himself into some sort of trouble, and the thought that he was now in danger of getting clobbered by a pet wrench was slightly amusing. It made one wonder who was the crazier one, the one getting clobbered all the time, or the one doing the clobbering?

"What's so funny?" said Brother as he raised an eyebrow and one of the corners of his lips, indicating amusement at my reaction.

I shook my head. "Nothing," I said, as I walked down the hall towards our room. I didn't want to stick around long enough to have him pry the silly question out of my head. He wouldn't be able to give me an honest answer to which of them was the craziest anyway.

The day passed by at a snail's pace to me, as I was so eager to get outside and enjoy the sounds and smells of nature at nighttime. I paced back and forth, hands clasped behind my back, looking out at the window every few seconds to see if the sun was low enough in the sky to justify setting out yet. Every time, I was disappointed to see that no, it was not low enough yet, and it was still moving incredibly slowly through the sky. I was going to go crazy if I didn't get out soon, I was sure.

"Geez, Al, if you want to go that badly, we don't have to wait until nighttime." I looked up, startled at the sudden intrusion of someone into my private space, but relaxed when I saw that it was only Brother. He was standing in the doorway, apparently observing my behavior. How long he had been standing there before he had spoken up, I had no idea, but judging by the way he was leaning against the door jam, I guessed that it had been awhile.

I felt the corners of my mouth involuntarily rising into a smile. "Do you really mean that, Brother? We can go right now?"

Brother shrugged. "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Better that than have you waiting around in misery."

Without a second thought, I ran up and hugged him so hard that he began to wheeze and beg me to release him so that he could breathe. I wasn't really as strong as I'm making it sound, but when I get excited, I can get a bit carried away. I let him go and stood by a few seconds as he caught his breath to make sure that he was alright, and then I bounded away to pack a few things for the night out. I just knew that this was going to be one of the best nights of my entire life, even if I couldn't logically figure out why.

"Come on, Brother," I said as I called over my shoulder to my brother who was still standing by the door, looking at me. "Start packing your things so we can get going."

Within a few minutes, we were finally outside and I was running around wildly like an animal just set free from the zoo. I dropped down and rolled in the grass for a few moments, and then I just as quickly leapt up and threw my head back to take in the breeze rolling over it. Laughter poured from my lips in a show of pure ecstasy. Brother simply stood nearby as we slowly walked towards the woods, rolling his eyes and chuckling at my behavior. He may not have understood, but at least he was being supportive. I was indeed grateful.

We arrived in the woods and found ourselves a good clearing to set up camp at, and we began unpacking our bags to make our beds, even though nighttime was still so far off. We figured that it would be easier to see to make our beds before the sun set than to wait until after it was dark. I was just starting to roll out my sleeping bag when I chanced to glance up and caught sight of what appeared to be a woman staring at us from a distance.

"Hello?" I called out, waving my hand. The woman didn't respond in the least, so I took a step forward, as if one step would make seeing her easier, and I was about to call out to her again when Brother interrupted me.

"Al...who are you talking to?"

"That woman over there," I said, pointing in the direction where I saw the figure, "I wonder what she's doing out here?"

"She's probably wondering the same thing about you," said Brother, who then turned to look in the direction that I was pointing. He frowned, and then turned back to face me. "I don't see any woman over there."

"She's just right over there," I said, stretching my arm out even further in the hopes of making the direction clearer. "Maybe she's a bit hard to see because she's so far away."

Brother shook his head and then turned to look at me again. "Al, there is nothing wrong with my eyesight. If there was someone there, I would see them."

"But there is someone there!" I said emphatically, "I'm looking at her right now!"

Brother shrugged. "Then why don't you just go and talk to her?"

I guessed that that would probably be the simplest solution, so I nodded at Brother and then ran off in the direction where I saw the woman still standing. She hadn't budged at all since I had first seen her, which I found to be a bit odd, but I figured that I would obtain all the answers to my questions once I reached her.

"Hello there," said a friendly voice as soon as I neared the group of trees that the woman had been standing in.

I looked up and smiled back. "Hi," I said shyly.

She didn't respond, as I guessed that she didn't really have anything to say, but just continued to stand there and stare and smile in her sweet way. I returned the stare her way, which she didn't seem to mind, which was a good thing since something compelled me to do so.

The longer I watched, the more I got a sense of...I don't know what. Something unusual. Something was odd about her, but I wasn't sure what, though I didn't feel threatened in any way. She had a genuinely peaceful aura about her. Aura! Yes, that was what I was seeing. She had a bright white aura shining around her body, which amazingly, I was able to see clearly, though I hadn't noticed it until just then. I couldn't recall having ever seen one's aura before.

"You seem...different somehow..." I said, trying to make an observation and yet retain my politeness, if that was at all possible.

She simply chuckled and said, "So do you."

I smiled. She seemed alright with people pointing out the things that made her unique, which was a good thing, since I had a lot of questions. The biggest question though was which one should I ask first? Maybe I should ask her why she seemed to be glowing like that? Or perhaps why I could partially see through her?

I gasped just slightly at that sudden realization. I could see through her? Was she like that little flower woman I had seen earlier? No wonder Brother hadn't been able to see her! I turned and looked up into her face, questions lining my own, as I was unsure of which one to ask first.

Her face melted in understanding, and she bent over slightly so that she wouldn't tower over me. She wasn't tiny like the last see-through woman I had seen, that was for sure. "You just can't figure me out, can you?" she said with a note of laughter in her voice, "Am I the first one you saw?"

I shook my head slowly, unsure even of that movement. "I...I saw a little woman...in a flower earlier...but um...are you the same thing? I mean...um..." My voice trailed off as I realized that I really didn't understand what I was trying to say, but it was just as well, since she was laughing at me by then anyway. There seemed to be no need to embarrass myself any worse than I already had.

"Well, I'm not exactly a flower woman," she said when she had finally stopped laughing. "I'm more of a tree woman. I'm what humans call a dryad."

"You're...not human?" I have to admit that that question sounded stupid even to me, but I couldn't think of anything better to say, so I said it.

She shook her head. "No, I'm a tree spirit."

A smile was finally beginning to play at my lips. I was still rather confused and wondering if I was crazy, but now I had a name to associate with what it was that I was seeing, so I couldn't be completely crazy, could I?

I swallowed the saliva that had built up in my mouth, telling myself that there was nothing to be afraid of. This gentle woman wasn't going to do me or anybody else any harm. I opened my mouth to speak. "So, um...what's your name?"

Her eyes opened wide for a second as if the question had scared her, and she refused to answer. I felt guilty for asking such a thing and had opened my mouth to apologize when she held up her hand to stop me from doing so. "It's okay," she said, "You didn't know."

"Didn't know what?" I asked.

"My people don't willingly give out their real names."

"Why not?"

"For...personal reasons."

"Oh...okay," I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, feeling rather awkward at the moment. Why couldn't I ever do anything right, even with the simple asking of someone's name?

She must've sensed how I was feeling, because she bent down even further and took my hand in hers. "If you need something to call me, you're welcome to call me Anglina."

I batted my eyes in confusion for a moment before I regained myself. "Anglina? Okay...that's not your real name I'm guessing?"

"No, of course not," she said, "That's the name of one of my friends, but so long as you don't know which one bears that name, there shouldn't be a problem."

I scratched the back of my head nervously. "Um, okay, Anglina...um...my name's Alphonse...if you want to call me something."

She chuckled again. "Is that your real name or not?"

I laughed in a childish way as I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I've never been called by any other name, so it must be my real one."

She smiled again and then gently stood back up straight. "Let's find out," she said, pointing her finger at me. "Alphonse!"

I blinked a couple times, not really sure what she wanted me to do, but waiting just in case she cared to explain. After a few moments of nothing occurring, I finally interrupted her and asked, "Um...what do you want me to do?"

She laughed again and shook her head. "Nothing. I was simply performing a test to see if that was your real name, and you failed the test."

"How do you fail a test on whether something is your real name or not?" I asked, bewildered.

"You just do," she said, "Sorry, but I really can't elaborate further."

"It's okay," I said, trying to understand and scratching the back of my head once again to aid in my concentration. "But...if you're saying that Alphonse isn't my real name when that's all I've ever been known by...what is my real name?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, and you're probably lucky that you don't know either."

I was about to ask her what she had meant by that when I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around to see where they were coming from and noticed my brother walking up to the group of trees where me and Anglina were standing. I smiled and waved at him, but he didn't return either the smile or the wave. "Al," he said, "Who are you talking to?"

"I'm talking to this lady right here," I said, spinning back around to point her out to my crazy brother, only to find that she was...gone! "Wait...she was just here!"

"Who was just here?" asked Brother.

"Anglina...that tree lady."

"Tree lady?" said Brother as he raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Yeah...that's what she said she was," I said, turning back to him, "Or rather, she actually said she was a dryad."

Brother's skepticism turned into a definite scowl, and I felt my shoulders slump at the sight of his piercing gaze. "A dryad? So you're seeing faeries now?"

"B-But a dryad isn't a faerie...is it?" I stammered.

Brother turned around so that I could only see his back. "Let's just head back to camp, Al."

I didn't feel like arguing, so I just sighed and followed after him. There didn't seem to be any way to make him believe me. Aside from that, I also desperately needed his company right then, because I had the eerie feeling that I was being watched.

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_I got all the way to the end of this and kept scrolling down because I thought there was going to be more, but then I realized there wasn't and I nearly hit the computer in frustration. Ah well, since I want more, it probably means I'm going to write quickly! Enjoy the update, and make sure to leave us some reviews while you're at it! ;)_


	5. Chapter 5

_So as I was reading Melissa's chapter a second time, I thought of this exciting little plot twist. Hee hee hee. Hope you all enjoy it, I sure had plenty of fun writing it. I had originally thought I was going to reveal a lot more, but the chapter was getting way too long, so I decided to save that scene for chapter seven. :)_

_Umm… since we don't- er- because we- I don't know. Melissa and I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, end of story. Get off my case! _

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I sighed and leaned against the back of a tree. The sun was finally starting to set now that Al and I had cooked ourselves a dinner of rabbit and talked for a while. I frowned slightly and looked over at Al, who was ;ying on his back in the grass and seemed to be deep in thought.

It was harder to see in the waning sunlight, but his skin was just as green as before, if not even more. And then he had barely eaten any of the rabbit, choking down small bites with a pained expression on his face. I didn't know what was the problem, considering that we had both eaten plenty of training during our time on the island years ago.

And then he had refused to let me start a fire for us to keep warm. He wouldn't even tell me why, but I had a feeling it had to do with the dryad woman he claimed to have seen. At least we weren't too cold since it was summer.

"So what do you want to do now?" I asked as I flicked a ladybug off my pant leg. "We've still got some time before we have to go to sleep. Is there anything you want to do?" Al rolled onto his side to look at me.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" he asked excitedly. "I haven't delved very far into these woods before. It would be exhilarating!"

"Alright, alright," I laughed. It ended up sounding slightly forced, despite my attempts to hide my worries from Al. I knew I could never hide them from him completely, but I wanted to at least make it seem like I wasn't worried about something big. I wasn't quite ready to let him know that I thought I might have messed up the transmutation.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong?" Al asked as I stood up and stretched out my arms.

"I said I was fine before and I meant it. I'm fine," I growled through clenched teeth. Al flinched slightly, and I immediately regretted the action. I was getting too tense over something when I didn't even know whether it was true or not.

"Let's just go for that walk," I added in a softer tone. Al nodded gratefully and stood up.

We set down a worn path that the villagers or Reisenburgh used whenever they wanted to escape from the realities of the world and enjoy the beauty in nature. I could remember going down the path with Al and mom back when we were little, but that had been during the day and we hadn't gone very far. It seemed like an entirely different path now.

Suddenly, Al swerved off the path and into the trees. I stopped in my tracks and looked after Al cautiously.

"Al?" I called out into the trees. He didn't stop or even look back at me. "Al, where are you going? Are you sure you know the way?"

"Yes!" Al said, looking over his shoulder and flashing a toothy grin at me. "This way is more picturesque. Come on, Brother!" I sighed and followed after him, unable to resist. There was just something about his smile that reassured me.

While I felt like I was crashing through the undergrowth of the forest, Al seemed to flit through like a shadow. I kept using the trees for support whenever I tripped on a root, but when Al touched the trunks of the trees, it was more like he was touching the shoulder of a passing friend. The distance between us soon lengthened until I couldn't even see him in the distance.

"Al?" I called out as I leaned against a tree to pull some burrs off my pants. I desperately hoped that there wasn't any poison ivy in the forest. "Al, where are you?"

"Over here!" Al called through the trees. "Turn Right!" I sighed and turned ninety degrees to my right before setting off a second time.

I felt like I had been walking forever when I finally stopped and tried calling out to Al a second time. Every time I asked for directions, he told me to go right, until I realized I was going the same direction I had originally started. But the trees all looked the same to me, so I had no idea if I was really in the same place as before or not.

I finally heard Al's voice faintly in the distance. I hurried forward through the trees until I stumbled into a small clearing, with Al on the other side by a group of trees. He appeared to be having a conversation with somebody, but there was nobody there. I sighed and slowly walked forward again. Not only was Al's skin turning green, but he was suffering from hallucinations too.

What the hell did I do to him?

"Al? Who are you talking to?" I asked gently. Al jerked in surprise to look at me, then smiled and waved me over.

"Camille and Sarah were just telling me that there's a river nearby," Al said with a grin before turning to look at a patch of air beside him. "Huh, that's funny," he said, wrinkling his eyebrows in confusion. "They were just here a moment ago."

"Come on, Al, I think we should go back to the camp," I said gently as I reached for his elbow. "It's starting to get dark." Al let me lead him away a few steps, then stopped and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Y-You don't believe me, do you?" Al asked shakily. "You still can't seem them. You think something's wrong with me." I felt my expression darken and I quickly turned so Al couldn't see my face. I knew I couldn't look my brother in the face and tell him that I knew there wasn't anything wrong with him when I knew it was a lie.

"Brother?" Al persisted in a gentler tone. He reached out to touch my arm, but I shuddered and pulled away.

"You just don't understand," I said softly. "Faeries, or dryads, or whatever you want to call them… they aren't real, Al."

"Yes they are," Al said softly. "I've seen them, Brother. I know they're real."

"It's so unscientific!" I groaned, stomping my foot in frustration. "How can you believe in something so… idiotic?!"

"And how can you _not_?!" Al yelled back, and I could see tears escaping the corners of his eyes. "Why can't you just believe me? I know what I saw!"

"Um, Al?" I said in disbelief as I looked down at his feet. "You… um, you're floating."

Al looked down at his feet in surprise and seemed to realize for the first time that his feet were about an inch or two off the ground. He panicked, and in trying to keep his balance, fell down soundly.

"Al, maybe we should head back to the camp," I said slowly as I reached out and helped him up. "It's already starting to get dark out, and we've both had a long day…"

"You still don't believe me?" Al said softly, looking at me with wide eyes. I turned away so he couldn't see my face. "Brother, you just saw me _fly_. How can you not believe me?"

I wanted to answer that I believed him, that of course he saw dryads and that it didn't matter that everything he said went against the laws of science, but the words wouldn't go past my lips.

I mean, come on, he was seeing _faeries_.

"I- I hate you," Al muttered, his fists clenching into fists. I looked over at him in surprise. I hadn't ever heard Al say that with such venom in his voice before. Was the existence of dryads really that important to him?

"Al, I-" I started, but Al looked at me angrily before turning and running out of the clearing. I stumbled back a step in surprise as I watched him run off. I had never known that one little sentence from him could hurt so much. It felt like I had lost my arm and leg all over again, but this time with lemon juice poured in the wound. I sighed loudly and kicked at the ground.

"Dammit!" I yelled to no one in particular. I clenched my hands into fists, taking slight comfort in feeling the fingernails on my left hand dig into my palm. "I am such an idiot! Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

I sat in the clearing for a few minutes, trying to figure out how I could apologize to Al. I didn't want to just go up to him and say that I believed in faeries when I knew perfectly well I didn't, but I didn't know what else would help. I stood up with a sigh and turned to leave the clearing and go back to the camp, hoping that I would know what to say once I saw Al.

Then I suddenly realized that I had no idea which way I was supposed to go. I turned around in a circle trying to place my bearings, but it didn't help. All the tres looked pretty much the same to me, and I couldn't remember which direction I had come from.

"Um, Al?" I called out hesitantly. "Al? Where are you buddy?" All I could hear was wind blowing through the trees.

And… laughter?

I jerked as I felt a pair of hands lightly rest on my shoulders, and spun around to try and see who was there, but the clearing was just as empty as it had been since Al had left.

"Relax," a voice whispered in my ear. I tried to turn around a second time, but froze as the pair of hands started to massage my back. I wanted to pull away, but it felt really good. And there was something familiar about that voice…

"Mom?" I whispered, and heard the same soft laughter echoing through the trees again.

"No," the voice whispered in my ear. "Just a friendly spirit." I was silent for a moment before finally speaking up.

"This is really weird," I murmured, and the spirit laughed again.

"What, just because your science cannot prove my existence?" she asked, and I frowned, trying to remember if the rabbit I had cooked earlier had been raw at all. There had to be some reason I was having this... hallucination.

"Who- or what- are you?" I asked a little hesitantly.

"I'm a dryad," the voice answered simply.

"Were you the one talking with Al?" I asked, remembering how Al had mentioned talking to two more dryads in the clearing.

"If that is what you call him, then yes," the dryad laughed. "Do not worry about him," she continued as she rubbed my back gently. "He has a kind heart and can take care of himself."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked softly. I had heard plenty of stories about faeries during my life, but all the ones I had heard put them in a negative light. Reisenburgh had plenty of farmers who liked to blame their crop's failure on the malice of faeries.

"Because Alphonse thinks very kindly of you," the dryad answered simply. "And if he thinks of you like that, then you can't be too horrible of a human. Even if you like to trust in science more than your heart." I opened my mouth to protest, but then realized that she was right.

"Is… Is Al really going to be okay?" I asked softly.

"He'll be fine," the dryad woman assured me. "Just give him a little space. It's his time."

"His time?" I repeated, but felt the hands pull away from me. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked desperately as I spun around. All I could hear was laughter echoing through the trees with the sound of hooves.

Wait… hooves?

I turned in the direction the sound was coming from just in time to see a topless man emerge from the trees with Al in his arms. I worriedly took a steep forward to see Al. It looked like he was unconscious.

I froze when the second half of the man emerged. I suddenly realized where the sound of hooves had come from. He resembled a man down to the waist, and then his skin flowed into chestnut fur and four horse legs.

A centaur.

Everything I had ever learned told me that it was impossible, and yet there was one standing right in front of me. I could feel something struggling deep within me. Part of me wanted to try and figure out some logical explanation behind the creature – like that he was some sort of chimera – but another part of me deep down wanted to believe that he was real.

"Wha- What did you do to Al?" I finally managed to croak out.

"He'll be fine," the centaur replied casually. "So then, I take it that you know him?"

"Of course I know him," I snapped back. "He's my damn brother! Now give him here!" The centaur laughed, flicking a long strand of brown-red hair over his shoulder.

"You wish, _human_," the centaur spat angrily. "His family has been giving us centaurs trouble for centuries. Maybe they'll finally start treating us better when we hold their precious son for ransom."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I said angrily.

"You have no idea, do you?" the centaur laughed, his sharp teeth gleaming in the small amount of light streaming through the trees. "My, my, you humans really can be stupid sometimes."

"Tell me what's going on," I said angrily, clenching my teeth together in an attempt to keep myself from strangling the centaur on the spot. I then clapped my hands together and pressed them against the ground, knowing it was a better way to stop him.

It took me a little effort to think of something that would detain the centaur while keeping Al safe, but I eventually had decided that the simplest way would be the best. Rocks shot out form the ground around the centaur's feet and quickly wrapped around him, making me smirk in triumph.

He centaur merely sighed and carefully placed Al onto his back. He then looked at me with an annoyed expression and flicked his wrist, causing the earth binding him to shoot back into the ground. I stared at him in disbelief.

"How did you-? What-?" I stammered, feeling like my lower jaw was about to pop off. The centaur just laughed and ran off into the trees.

"No, wait! Give me back my brother, you bastard!" I shouted, trying to run after him. However, I soon found out that I was no match against a set of four legs, and I was too far away to use alchemy a second time.

"I cannot give you your brother, human!" the centaur called back to me as I desperately ran through the trees. I couldn't even see the centaur anymore, and was just running blindly in the direction of pounding hooves.

I tripped over a root in the ground and fell to my knees. I could hear many other sets of hooves joining the first centaur I had just seen. It seemed like a whole troop of centaurs was involved in kidnapping Al. What the hell did they want him for?

I slid back on my hands and leaned up against a tree, feeling warm tears slid against my face. I desperately wiped them away with the heel of my hand and tried to think of a plan, not knowing how I could possibly find creatures that weren't supposed to exist. I didn't even know if what I had seen was actually real or the result of some bad food.

* * *

_Yeah, I seriously had no idea I was even going to do that until I reread Melissa's chapter. Oh yes, and my package also came a couple days ago:D The only problem with it is the fact that I don't think Ed would appreciate the fact that his figurine is about three inches tall… XD _


	6. Chapter 6

**After that last chapter, I just had to respond quickly with another one, so you're all very lucky this time to be getting a response so quickly.**

**And I wanted to point something out regarding a review Addict got. True, responding directly is generally what I'd do, but I figured it'd probably help all the readers if I put this in an author's note, so here it is. There seems to be an awful lot of confusion about this on this site. The ratings system pretty much corresponds to the ratings on television or the ratings on movies. Therefore, K equals Y on tv, or possibly G on movies ((it doesn't correlate exactly with the movie rating, but that's close.)) Kplus equals Y7 on tv, and comes close to PG on movies. T equals TV14 on tv, and PG-13 on movies, and M equals M on tv and R on movies. In order to become a PG-13/T/TV14, there needs to either be violence, intense scenes, character death, heavy swearing, or sexual hints. We've barely had anything even close to that in this story thus far, so it would easily fall into the Kplus range, though it's rated T to be safe, because we don't know what each other is going to do in the future. However, we do know that neither one of us will kick it up to being horrifically bloody and gorey, having swear words that could compete with a sailor, or having detailed sexual scenes. That would qualify as an M, nothing less. Obviously, one can go beyond that into the rating MA which isn't allowed on this site, but that corrsponds to the movie rating NC-17, which is basically pornography. Heh, yeah, sorry, we're not even going to come close to that. So sorry, no M's from either me or Addict. We're sticking with the T rating. **

**Hope that cleared a few things up.**

_Hm, um, agent, I think that reviewer was using M. as an abbreviation, not as a rating for the story. I'm not quite sure myself though, and it is very good information, so the rest of you pay attention! _

_Oh yeah, and um, we don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Don't you know that owning slaves is bad? Wait, that's not what you meant? Oh… _

* * *

To put it lightly, I was rather confused when I came to. I woke up to first find myself lying atop a bed of hay, and then once I opened my eyes, I saw that that bed of hay was enclosed inside of an iron cage. The bottom of the cage was probably made of iron too, or else it would have been too easy for me to escape from it. It was almost like someone had known my new weakness and had deliberately rigged a system that wouldn't hurt me if I stayed put, but would if I tried to get away. How could anyone have possibly figured out that I was allergic to certain kinds of metal when I had only just found out that day? 

I wearily sat up and rubbed my head, finding a bump there that wasn't there before. That certainly explained why I was waking up in an unfamiliar place. Someone must have knocked me out and dragged me here, but I couldn't think of who would want to do that or why. True, my brother had made many enemies during the years we had traveled together, but they rarely ever came directly after me. There was that one time when I had been kidnapped and taken to Devil's Nest, but that was because I had been stuck in a suit of armor and a greedy homunculus had the crazy notion that he could somehow gain immortality off of that. But I wasn't in a suit of armor now, I was in my normal body, and most of my brother's enemies were gone. Who would do this?

Just then, I heard a snort come from somewhere to the right of me, and so I snapped my head in that direction to identify the source of the noise. My eyes grew wide as I registered the sight in front of me. A shirtless man, whose body changed at the waist to resemble more that of a horse, stood there, pacing back and forth, like he was on guard duty, which he probably was. He really didn't need to try so hard to keep me from escaping. I knew alchemy, yes, but I wouldn't be able to break out of a place that I couldn't even touch.

The sight of the being before me shouldn't have surprised me, anyway. I had seen one of his kind last night for a brief moment, but I could barely remember the encounter. No doubt that that one was the reason why I was here now. Why he had gone to such extremes, I couldn't fathom, but if they were going to treat me this way without them even knowing me, then I knew I couldn't stay here. There had to be some way to gain freedom from these...what were they called again...centaurs? That probably wasn't the name they gave to themselves, but it would have to do for the time being. I wasn't about to ask them what they called themselves.

I stood up to gain a better view of my surroundings. The hay crunched underneath my weight as I moved to a standing position, and the centaur guard snapped his head in my direction to catch me moving. He gave what almost looked like it could be interpreted as a smile, but it sent chills through my body, as I definitely knew that it was not one. "Don't try anything funny," he said, and then kicked the side of the cage with his hoof. The sudden movement startled me so badly that I tripped backward and smacked the back of my head against the bars of the cage. That would have hurt enough as it was had I reacted to metal like a normal person, but the pain from impact was combined with the pain of my flesh burning as soon as it touched the metal, and I jerked my head away from the side of the cage and let out a pained yelp. The centaur just laughed as though my misfortune was entertainment to him. What had I done to deserve this?

Finally, the dam broke, and the tears began running down my face. Why had I desired to come out into nature so badly when it was just going to turn into a nightmare like this? What if something awful had happened to my brother? He had been following me blindly and seemed to not know where he was going. What if he was lost? Panic combined with my confusion, and even though I had just woke up, I cried myself back into a troubled sleep.

I awoke sometime later to find that the sky was once again dark. I had apparently managed to sleep all day, and the centaurs had ignored me completely. One would think that they'd try to at least make sure that their prisoner stays alive and reasonably healthy, but they didn't seem to care a bit. I was about to despair and start crying once again when I finally noticed the hand on my shoulder that had been shaking me all along. That was why I had woken up. I snapped my head in the direction of the intruder, but didn't dare say anything. I couldn't see their face well enough in this darkness to determine whether this person was friend or foe.

The individual had apparently noticed my movement, because they stopped shaking me and instead they put their finger to their lips. "Be quiet," the individual whispered, "The centaurs are all asleep, so I've come to get you out of here, but you must be absolutely quiet."

"Who are you?" I whispered back.

"Shh!" said the person. I nodded my head in response. I supposed that now probably wasn't the best time for an interrogation. My options were rather limited: I had to either trust this complete stranger or trust the centaurs. As I already knew how the centaurs treated me, I decided that I'd rather take the risk with the stranger and just hope that things worked out for the best. Besides, he sounded so young that he couldn't be too bad of a person. That voice of his could have easily been my own.

The figure walked around to the front of the cage and carefully reached up with his hands until he found the lock, and then he put something into it. I'm pretty sure it was a key. How he would have ever gotten a hold of the key, I have no idea. Maybe he forged it. Regardless, it unlocked the door, and the person quietly swung it open. He then motioned with his hand for me to follow him, and I did so obediently. As soon as I was out of the cage, he closed the door and locked it again before turning towards the forest and beckoning me to follow him again. I don't now why he wasted his time on locking the door like that. Maybe he's just a perfectionist, or maybe it would gain us some time by confusing the centaurs as to how I managed to escape from a locked cage.

Once we were a safe distance from the centaur camp, I finally turned to my guide and said, "Okay, now I think I deserve some answers. Who are you, and how did you know about me?"

The boy looked at me and sighed, and then turned to look back at his path and continue forward. "It's probably best that you don't know," he said, "We were never supposed to meet, but this was a special situation."

"Why weren't we supposed to meet?" I asked. I was probably being a bit nosy, but I highly doubted that he would blame me for being curious.

"Because it's...complicated," he said. I nodded in response. I so badly wanted to continue probing him with questions until he finally told me what he knew, but I could tell that he was uncomfortable with the situation, so I decided to just let the subject go for the time being.

We reached a clearing and then we stopped walking and just stared at each other, though we still couldn't see each other's faces clearly in the darkness. "I think you can find your way home from here," he said, "But don't stay there long. You're in danger here, and you can't afford to make yourself easy to reach by being at your human home."

I nodded that I understood and then we both waved goodbye to each other as he disappeared back into the woods. I shuddered and then shook the feeling off. I knew logically that it was silly to be feeling like that, but the feeling wouldn't go away. It didn't make any sense to me, but it somehow felt as if I should have been him.

"Winry!" I yelled as I knocked on the door as loudly as I could, "Please, come and let me in!" It had taken several minutes of knocking to get a response, but finally, I heard the sound of rapid footsteps running in the house followed by the door being swung open wildly. Winry stood there in her nightclothes with a look of utter shock on her face.

"Al!" she began, and her lips trembled as though desiring to form more words, but were unable to. "Wh-where have you BEEN? We've been so worried!"

"Does that mean that Brother got home alright?" I asked, hopefully.

"Well, he's home," said Winry, nodding to the inside of the house, "But he's been pretty badly beaten up. I just found him on the front step this morning, and he doesn't remember how he got here." She finally turned back to look at me, and then as though she finally realized that she hadn't allowed me to come into the house yet, she stepped aside to give me room to enter the house.

"So how is Brother doing now?" I asked as Winry shut the door.

"Well..." said Winry, as though dragging it out as long as possible in order to avoid giving bad news. I cleared my throat to draw her attention to the fact that I wanted to be told, so she cleared her throat in response as well and then turned her head down to the floor.

"He's...well...he's delirious, Al. He rarely even knows that I'm there." She grabbed her right arm with her left arm and then looked up into my face. Tears were beginning to generate in her eyes, but had not yet fallen. "The times when he is cognizant, he can barely even remember what happened out there, but it must've been something awful to have turned him like that and to cause you to disappear for a day. Al, what happened to you two?"

Tears were running down my own face by then. I couldn't bear to think of Brother being hurt by my wants and desires. There had to be something I could do about this. I wasn't going to just sit around and do nothing.

"Winry, can you show me that book about that man who saw...um..."

"Saw what?"

"Uh..." I said, searching for a word, "...little people?"

"Heh," she said, almost dignifying my phrase with a chuckle, "You mean faeries?"

I narrowed my eyes and glared at her, though I couldn't honestly understand why I was reacting the way I was. "I don't like that word," I said.

"Why not? 'Faerie' is a perfectly good word."

"I don't care, I just don't like it!"

"Okay, okay, fine, I won't say it around you," she said, putting her hands up in surrender and then turning to head to the dining room. I assumed that she was going to look for the book I had asked about, so I turned and followed her.

We reached the dining room, where the book was still on the table, and she sat down in the chair nearest it. She took it in her hands and then turned to face me. "So, what did you want to learn about f- er, I mean, little people, Al?"

I placed my hands on the sides of my head and began rubbing my hair, which was something I had the tendency to do when I was thinking and nervous at the same time. I felt like I was really pursuing something pointless here, but something deep inside told me that this information would somehow help.

"Um, I don't know...everything I guess...just flip it open to anything that sounds interesting, and we'll start from there."

"Okay," she said, and she began to open the book. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to help center myself for whatever I was about to find out. Suddenly I felt myself connect with the book, and it was almost as though I could decide for myself which pages would be turned and which would not. I really didn't know what I was doing, but it felt so right to do it. I willed myself into the pages, knowing that I was somehow controlling their outcome, even if Winry was unable to notice such a thing.

She flipped open the book and read the title off the top of the page. "Pixie." I pulled another chair out from the table and sat down to hear what she had to say. "The Pixie is a mischievous little faerie, with their strong liking for pranks and tricks. They enjoy taking small things, particularly if they are shiny, but are just as intolerant to iron as any faerie. If you have an infestation of pixies in your home, hang a bunch of iron pots around the house or dump a large sack of rice out onto the floor. Most faeries despise messes and will feel compelled to clean it up. If they cannot complete the task by morning, they will leave the house for cleaner quarters.

The Pixie is characterized by their green skin and pointed ears as well as by the pixie dust that they are so famous for. Pixie dust is created by these particular faeries as their way of casting spells and performing their own branch of magic. Because of this, a Pixie is capable of flight whether they have wings or not."

My heart had already been beating rapidly when Winry had started reading that passage, but now it felt like it was trying to burst out of my chest. Panic filled my mind, and I jumped up and ran to the bathroom, locking myself in. It all had to be a coincidence, it seriously had to be. I was simply allergic to iron, and I was probably coming down with something, which would explain the color of my skin. I knew that I certainly didn't have pointed ears; that was just ridiculous. I was just overreacting.

Winry knocked on the door. "Al? Are you okay?"

I didn't answer, and instead turned to look into the mirror. What I saw made me cry out in shock. My skin was now even greener than it had been before, and I now had pointed ears to match. There was no escaping the truth now. All the anomalies that had been occurring the past couple days, and the huge mess that me and my brother had now been pulled into all pointed to one thing: I was a faerie.

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_Grah! Oh no she didunt! Wait, she did! –spazzes and dies- Ah well, now I've got to get started on the next chapter to fell better, so you should all thank agent. And hey, at least she revealed stuff in this chapter, which took us a while to do. :D _


	7. Chapter 7

_Phew, I actually finished this. I was a bit more rushed for this chapter, all things considered, so sorry if it seems a little slow and then a little more rushed. The last bit was more of a cram. _

_Um, Melissa and I still don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, unfortunately. I'm so sorry to disappoint you all, but there will probably never be any official FMA Faerie Alphonse action figures. XD_

* * *

I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes and was shocked with the sudden light that attacked me. I weakly covered my eyes with one hand and pushed myself up with the other.

"Ow," I muttered, wobbling as I stood. I clutched at the nightstand for support and tried to remember what had happened. My grip tightened as I remembered the centaurs and how Al had said he hated me, but after that I couldn't remember what had happened, other than somehow, I must have managed to get to the Rockbell house. I sighed and carefully walked to the door of the room and out into the hallway.

"Ed?" Winry said in surprise when she saw me slowly walking towards her. "W- When did you get up? Why are you out of bed? You should be resting!"

"I have to go to the bathroom," I muttered, holding a hand to my stomach. I flinched as my cold fingers brushed against my skin, and wondered when Winry had changed me out of my clothes. I could feel a bruise beneath my fingers and pulled my hand away without looking. I knew it would hurt more once I saw what it looked like.

"Al's in the bathroom," Winry told me. "I don't know what's wrong. He just... ran off."

"Al's back?" I said incredulously. "But how'd he get back? I thought the centaurs kidnapped him!" Winry raised an eyebrow disbelievingly as she looked at me. I had a pretty good idea of how she felt. I wouldn't have believed myself just a few days ago.

"Maybe you should go back to bed," Winry suggested carefully as she put a hand on my shoulder. "You've been through a pretty rough few days, and…"

"I'm fine, Winry," I said, shrugging out of her grip. I then winced as a cut on my shoulder stung. Okay so maybe I wasn't 'fine,' but my mind was well enough. "I know what I saw," I told Winry before turning to the bathroom door. "Al? Are you okay? What's going on?"

"Don't come in!" Al said quickly. I looked curiously at the door and then leaned in closer.

"Al? Um, is," I hesitated, licking my lips and silently praying he wouldn't answer my question the wrong way. "is there something wrong with you?" I closed my eyes as Al fell silent from his side of the door.

_No. Oh no. _

"I, well, I don't really look like… I usually do," Al said hesitantly. I felt my stomach drop to my feet and I quickly turned to Winry.

"Let us have a few minutes alone," I said to Winry firmly. She looked at me worriedly, but turned and slowly walked away to the living room. I then looked at the bathroom door again.

"Al, Winry's gone now," I said in a softer tone. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"I- I don't know," Al stammered, his voice shaking slightly.

"Well, let's just start with something easy," I sighed slightly. "How do you look different from before?" I could hear Al sigh and lean against the other side of the door. "I can handle it Al, whatever it is," I added softly. "If you just tell me, then maybe we can fix it."

"I don't think so," Al laughed bitterly.

"And why the hell not?" I demanded, feeling anger rise in my chest. It wasn't anger at Al so much as anger at the situation. Why did Al have to have problems just because I was such an idiot? "What's wrong, Al?!"

"I- I don't know," Al said, this time his voice cracking with sobs. I worriedly turned to look at the door as his crying got louder and then softer again as he tried to stifle it. "I- I'm sorry, Brother," he chocked out, and I felt something snap in me.

"Dammit, Al!" I yelled at the door. "Why are you apologizing?! _I'm _the one who screwed up and _you're _apologizing?!"

"You didn't screw up, Brother," Al hiccupped. "I was just apologizing for crying over something stupid." I sighed loudly and kicked the door to try and get out some of my anger before I exploded again.

Unfortunately, I accidentally kicked the door with my automail foot and made a large dent, only managing to make me more frustrated.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Brother," Al reassured me softly. "I just… I don't know what's going on. I thought I used to know who I was, but now… I feel like everything I know has been… thrown in the toilet." I laughed slightly to myself, wondering what had happened to the poetic speech. It almost seemed like he was purposely trying to make his language not sound poetic.

"Brother?" Al asked softly, and the smile faded from my face. "Would you still love me if I suddenly changed?" he asked, breaking into soft tears near the end. I finally couldn't take it anymore and just opened the door to the bathroom, and wrapped Al up in a hug all in the same moment.

Al shivered slightly against me, then slowly reached up and clutched at my shirt as if it was the only thing binding him to the world. I slowly rubbed his back, wondering what had brought on these sudden thoughts.

"Brother," Al said softly. "Could you please be careful with your automail?" I felt the blood drain from my face and looked down to see that I had been very close to brushing my metal arm against the exposed skin of Al's neck. I carefully pulled away from Al, but then gasped in surprise.

"What the hell happened to you?" I said, practically doing a double take. His skin had gotten even greener than before, and now his ears were pointed to add to the strange look. "So this is why you wouldn't let anyone in here?" I asked. Al took in a deep breath and worriedly looked down at the floor.

"I'm sorry, Brother," he said softly.

"Stop apologizing!" I snapped. "I'm the one who screwed up the transmutation and made you look like this! It's not your fault!" Al looked up at me confoundedly, so I took a deep breath and continued in a calmer tone, "I'm sorry, Al. I swear I won't rest until I manage to fix this."

"You think you messed up the transmutation?" Al asked softly, and I looked down at the floor instead of his eyes. It hurt too much to look him in the eye. "Are you positive?"

"What kind of question is that?" I said softly. "Why else would you suddenly be turning green and allergic to metal? Normal people don't do that."

"I'm not normal," Al said firmly. I opened my mouth to protest, but he swiftly cut me off. "And it's not because of the transmutation. Just a mistake in a transmutation wouldn't make me able to fly and have centaurs exist."

"So then what's your idea?" I sighed slightly, crossing my arms across my chest. Al hesitated and bit his lip nervously.

"I think that I'm a… a pixie."

I laughed slightly before realizing that Al was completely serious. But how the hell could he be serious about something like faeries? I opened my mouth to protest, but then suddenly remembered the dryad saying that I liked to trust in science more than my heart.

True, _scientifically_, Al being a faerie didn't make much sense, but deep down, it seemed right. He had been stuck in that armor for years, so once he got his body back, it would make sense for him to go through… faerie puberty. And it certainly explained why so many weird things had been happening.

"O- Okay," I said a little hoarsely. Al looked at me in surprise, and I smiled weakly. "So, what do we have to do if you're a… a… faerie? Is that how you got away from the centaurs?"

"No," Al shook his head quickly. "Somebody rescued me. And please don't use that word."

"What word?" I said curiously, cocking my head to one side. "Faerie?" Al winced and quickly nodded. "Who rescued you though? Another…um, greenie?"

"That might not be the best choice of wording either. You don't want to offend anyone," Al said with a slight grin. "And he wasn't. He could touch the lock without getting burned." I felt my eyes widen at the thought that Al had been locked up somewhere, but then decided to drop it. There were bigger things to deal with.

Like the fact that Al was a _faerie_.

"So do you know where… people like you live?" I asked hesitantly. Al shook his head quickly. "So will you just… stay here?" Al fell silent, his face creasing into a frown.

"I... I can't," Al said softly. "It's not safe. The… erm, centaurs… will be looking for me." I frowned, remembering how the centaur had said that they would use Al as a ransom.

"Then I'm coming with you."

"But, Brother, what if it's dangerous?" Al said worriedly. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms across my chest.

"Al, you _do_ know who you're talking to, right?" I said with a slight smile. Al hesitated, and then smiled back at me warmly. "Now," I continued, "We need to get you looking reasonably like a human, and I need to put on some actual clothes." I glanced down at myself, seeing how I was wearing only boxers. I winced as I saw just how beat up I really was and looked back up, deciding it would be better if I didn't concentrate on how I'd gotten hurt.

"Here," I said, opening a cabinet under the sink and pulling out a pink box. "Winry's makeup should cover up that green skin of yours."

"You know where Winry's makeup is?" Al laughed, and I scowled. I only knew where it was because I'd walked in on her putting it on once. I pulled out some skin colored cream and started dabbing it on Al's face with his help.

"What?" I asked, noticing the expression on Al's face as I dabbed at his nose.

"Nothing," Al shrugged. "It's just… You're really okay with all this? Are you sure you're fine, Brother?" I sighed and started putting fleshy colored makeup on one of Al's hands, being sure not to get my automail anywhere near him.

"Maybe it's time I started following my heart more than science," I murmured softly. When I looked up, Al's ecstatic smile made me grin from ear to ear. I looked back down and finished putting the makeup on Al's hand.

"Okay, I'm going to go get dressed," I said, wiping my hands on a towel and putting all the makeup away again. "Why don't you go down and see if Winry knows anything about… erm…"

"I already talked to her a bit," Al grinned at me. "But I can go see what else is in her book." I nodded and walked back to my room. I quickly grabbed my folded clothes off the chair and pulled them on before hurrying down to the living room. Winry and Al were sitting on the sofa, Winry with the open book in her hands. I hurriedly sat down on the other side of Winry and looked at the title of the page.

"Human and Faerie Interaction. Well, isn't that convenient," I grumbled before settling back in the couch. "Go ahead Winry. I always liked Story Time." Winry laughed slightly, took a breath and started reading aloud, obviously curious about Al's and my behavior.

"Faeries have always had a tendency to enjoy taking humans and using them for entertainment. Usually they are more attracted to blond boys. Unfortunately, humans figured out the weaknesses of faeries and used it to stop them from taking human babies.

"This in turn led to the faeries becoming more sneaky in their capturing of humans. Instead of taking whatever children they wanted, they instead started kidnapping young babies at night. To further avoid detection, they would replace the human babies with one of their own. These children came to be know as Changelings. Sometimes the young changelings in a human environment would even change their appearance slightly to mimic their human parents' appearance."

I felt like I was frozen to my seat. '_Usually they are more attracted to blond boys.'_ Suddenly Al being a faerie seemed so much more important. If he was a faerie, then that meant he was probably a "changeling." And if he was a Changeling, then that meant he wasn't really my brother.

I barely heard Al and Winry asking me what was wrong as I stood up and ran out the door.

It had turned to night again, and I realized that I must have been out for at least an entire day, if not more. The cool night air whipped against my eyes, getting rid of any chance of tears I might have. But any sadness I might have was soon replaced by anger as I flopped in the grass and stared up at the stars. How _dare _those faeries. He was _my _brother!

"Hi," I soft voice said to my left, and I rolled over to se Al sitting next to me. I hadn't even heard him walk up to me. Damn his faerie skills. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" I repeated disbelievingly. "What's wrong? Oh, perhaps the fact that my brother isn't actually my brother! Maybe the fact that for years I've been wandering around the country, sacrificing everything I have for some stranger!"

"We're not strangers," Al said softly. "And even if I am a changeling, I would still consider you my brother. You've been there for me my whole life, and I consider you to be someone who will always be there for me, someone I can depend on. What more is there to being a brother other than that? We don't need the same blood to be brothers."

I sighed and looked back up the sky, realizing that he was right. We were still brothers, even if we weren't biologically related. I had decided to follow my heart more than science, and my heart was telling me to stick with Al, my only true family. I looked over at Al and smiled before turning back to looking at the stars.

I frowned as a sudden dark blot moved across the dark sky. I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, watching as it got closer and closer. I soon realized that it was heading towards us. Al watched it too until a sudden looming shape landed in front of us. It took a minute for my eyes to put together the silhouette in front of me, but then I realized that it was a dragon. A very large, black dragon.

"Faerie of Water, your presence is requested at the Fee Council of the Seelie Court in three days hence," the dragon said in a deep voice. I nearly fainted.

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_Ta-da! I managed to actually finish! Now show us the love and leave some nice reviews! Who doesn't love reviews:) Meanwhile, I am going to bed now, writing sure does tire a person out. _


	8. Chapter 8

_Haha, agent didn't have enough time to write an author's note for this chap. And I'm writing the author's note before I've actually read the chapter, so I don't even know what happens yet. XD Shall we all find out together?_

_-puts scratched record on a record player- We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Wheep. We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Wheep. We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Wheep. We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Wheep. We don't… (And yes, we really do have a record player at my house.)_

* * *

I felt sorry for poor Winry. Here we were leaving her yet again and were barely explaining why since we couldn't bring ourselves to try and tell her what had been happening lately. Not only did we not want to scare her too much, but we also figured that not knowing much might protect her from the centaurs. If she didn't know what I was or where I was, then they wouldn't be able to get information out of her, no matter what they tried. I was still a bit unnerved by the fact that we were leaving her alone, but I highly doubted that an automail engineer was likely to be attacked too strongly by mischievous nature spirits. There was an uncomfortable amount of steel in her house.

Before we left, however, Brother was smart enough to ask her if we could take that book with us that we had been gleaning all the information about myself from. Naturally, she didn't understand that either, but we promised to explain everything to her once we came back, and that seemed to satisfy her, so she gave us the book.

We didn't particularly know where we were going. The black dragon had come, dropped off its message without bothering to explain its meaning to us, and then promptly left. The only thing that had made it absolutely clear that the message was for me was the fact that he had used the word "faerie", even though I felt a bit insulted at the word choice. As far as I knew, Brother was not one himself. I had also gathered that I was expected somewhere in three days' time, but that was about it. Hopefully they realized that I honestly didn't know what the Seelie Court was and therefore wouldn't punish me if I showed up late or not at all.

"Al," said Brother as he began randomly flipping through the pages of the book while walking beside me, "This seems to be a fiction novel. How did you come by all those nice little tidbits of information?"

I smiled and chuckled a tiny bit. "Look in the back. Sometimes when authors base their stories off of actual research, they put facts in the back of the book."

Brother got a look of sudden realization on his face, and then he rolled his eyes and said, "I knew that!" and promptly flipped to the back. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing at his behavior, even though the worst he would have done had I laughed would be to give me a dirty look.

His eyes streamed rapidly over the lines of text as he set down upon a particularly interesting article that he had found. I wanted to know what it was that he was reading about, but I figured I'd have to wait until he was finished with the article to get anything out of him. He didn't particularly like being disturbed. I continued to walk quietly along beside him, occasionally glancing nervously in his direction to see if he had finished with the article or not. After a few agonizing minutes, he finally looked up from the book into my face once again.

"So what's this about pixie dust?" asked Brother.

"Oh!" I breathed out a sigh of relief since I no longer needed the feeling of anticipation. "I actually don't know, Brother."

"What about that time you, um...flew? Did you use it then?"

"I don't know," I said, "I don't really know what pixie dust is, let alone how to use it."

"Hmmm..." he said as he closed the book over his finger to mark his place, "What were you thinking then?"

"Um...what does it matter?" I asked, not really sure if I should be annoyed with his probing or not. Asking about this was bringing up bad memories of a couple days prior, and I didn't really want to think about them unless I had to.

"Think about it," said Brother, "If you can learn to fly, then you can get away from those centaurs if they attack you again."

I nodded. That was true. Being able to fly could come in handy if I could just figure out what I had done the first time. I was scared though. I was entering a world that I knew very little about, and I was being forced to adapt faster than I wished. Without responding directly to Brother's last statement, I decided to just answer his question instead, since he was trying to be helpful. He was adapting to my strangeness so much better than I would have expected. "I suppose that at the time, I was thinking about how mad I was at you for not believing me."

Brother blushed. "Yeah, sorry about that, Al. At least it got you to fly, right?"

I gave a sheepish smile in return. At least he believed me now. "Are you sure that that's what got me to fly?" I asked.

Brother shrugged in response. "I don't see why not. That kind of feeling would have caused strange things to happen in alchemy if you had been performing a transmutation at the time, so why wouldn't it have the same effect with your special kind of...um...magic?"

"That's true," I said. At least I did have a knowledge of alchemy. I was probably the only pixie in the world that did. That might work to my advantage later, since no one in the realm of the...um...whatever they were called...my kind...knew my moves. It would help to soften my learning curve somewhat, at least.

"Maybe pixie dust results from passion," said Brother, continuing on his line of thought.

"Maybe," I said, though I wasn't really interested in the conversation any longer. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could forget everything that had occurred in the past couple days, but I highly doubted that any such place existed. At least I wouldn't have to be alone though, since Brother had chosen to still be by my side, even after finding out what I really was.

"Are you bored?" said Brother suddenly, breaking into my thoughts. I snapped my head back up at him and looked into his face. He had a concerned, quizzical expression, apparently overly worried about how I felt about his company, or something like that.

I shrugged. "I'm a little bored, but not because of you."

"Then what's it because of?"

"Confusion, I guess."

"Ah," he said, scratching the back of his head with his free hand, "Survival boredom."

I chuckled a bit at that. I'd never thought to label the different kinds of boredom before, but that label did make sense in this case. "I suppose so," I said.

"Look," he said as he ceased his walking and turned to look at me. "Why don't we just climb a tree for now to get away from the centaurs, and then we can sit there and talk for as long as we want while we try to figure things out?"

"I suppose we could," I said, "If it's alright with the tree."

"Uh, yeah...right," he said, shifting his eyes around and looking a bit uncomfortable. I sighed a bit and turned to the nearest tree. I couldn't say that I really blamed him. This was all very new to both of us, and certain things were weirder to us than other things. Talking to trees just happened to be on the top of his weirdness list, but at least he was accepting it now.

I turned back to face Brother after a moment. "She says she doesn't mind us climbing her. Apparently she doesn't like the centaurs much herself. She'll even shift a few branches to make it easier for us to climb her."

"That's...good...I guess..." said Brother. I smiled at him. He was doing the best he could.

We turned to face the tree again and before our eyes, several branches moved into slightly easier positions so that we wouldn't have to stretch so hard to reach them. This was going to be the first time I had ever climbed an accommodating tree. I chuckled to Brother for a brief moment, and then I bolted up the tree, Brother following shortly behind, after he shook his head free of the bewilderment.

Once we were sufficiently high up to feel safe, we found a couple of comfortable and secure branches and settled down into them. We didn't bother to speak to each other, merely enjoying the feel of the breeze up this high. True, we had climbed trees before, but this was the first time ever where we'd climbed a tree that we both knew had intelligence.

"So, Al, what do you think happened to-" I turned to look at my brother as he was speaking, when he suddenly went silent upon seeing my face. "Never mind," he said, "That would be tactless."

"What would be tactless?" I said, "I can handle it, ask me!"

Brother sighed and looked like he wasn't going to speak for a moment, but as always, he eventually opened up his mouth and did. "...What do you think happened to my biological brother?"

I frowned and cast my eyes down to the ground. I could see why he said such a question was tactless. It was. I couldn't blame him for asking it though, since it was my fault that I had asked him to ask it when he'd tried to back out. The best thing to do right then would be to just follow through with it, as if it were a normal question. "I don't know, Brother. I don't know any more about these things than you do."

Brother then reached a hand over and placed it on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Al, I shouldn't have asked."

I shook my head furiously. "Don't apologize for that! If I were in your place, I would be curious too...Actually, I'm curious enough as it is. Is there someone else walking around out there with my face?"

"Maybe," Brother said as he shrugged, and then he turned a determined facial expression my way, "But don't worry about it, Al, he won't be replacing you anytime soon. He may be related by blood, but he's a complete stranger to me. You're much more my brother than he is."

"So you're really okay with this?" I said.

"Positive," said Brother. I just hoped that for once he was telling the truth, and not trying to make me feel better.

We ended up spending the rest of the day and night in the tree, only venturing down to find food or use the toilet. It just felt safer to stay up there until we knew what our plan was. Brother began reading the novel part of the book, hoping to gain some clues about my kind even though it was structured in the form of 'fiction'. I was beginning to wonder if there was really any such thing as 'fiction', according to what most people seemed to think it meant.

It was funny, but Brother even found a spot in the story where the nature spirits took offense at the word 'faerie' the way I did. At least that showed that I wasn't the only one who did that. Apparently they didn't like it because it was a human-invented word that didn't do them any justice. I suppose that that made a little bit of sense. Even different nationalities of human beings don't like being called by outsider terms. They like to be referred to by the names they make for themselves, and apparently the case is the same for my kind.

And it seemed that the word that my kind went by as a whole was the word 'fay'. I must admit that when Brother read that word out of the book, that I completely relaxed and uttered a sigh of relief. Deep down in my heart, I knew that that word was acceptable. Having that word to refer to all of my kind instead of that word 'faerie' would make things so much easier, since we wouldn't have to play around with words anymore.

The next morning, I was awakened by a gentle shaking on my shoulder. I thought it was Brother at first, and so I swatted at the hand and told him to go away and let me sleep, but all I got was a gentle chuckle in response and the shaking continued. I finally realized that it was not my brother, and so I opened my eyes to see who really was disturbing my sleep. As could be expected, it was the dryad who belonged to the tree. She smiled at me as soon as she saw that I had woken up, and then she knelt down close to me and said, "You and your brother need to leave as soon as possible. The centaurs have been spotted in this area, and they won't hesitate to bring me down to get to you if they know you're up here."

I nodded my understanding and thanked her for the warning, and then I turned towards my brother and quickly shook him awake and relayed the message to him. He agreed that we needed to get to another part of the forest as soon as possible. It was going to be difficult, since we would have to be sneaky to outrace the centaurs into another location. They were very fast on land. If only I knew how to fly at will, it would make things a lot easier.

I was already starting to make out the clopping of hooves on the forest floor. They were way too close for comfort. "Go! Hurry!" yelled the dryad. I called to my brother to hurry up, and we both scurried down the tree. We didn't have long to get away from them, but we were going to have to try.

"Al, let's just hide here in the bushes until they get past us. There's no way we can outrun them. I've seen those things run around!" I sighed and nodded. Brother was right, there was no way we'd be able to beat the centaurs by running away from them, but I wasn't sure if hiding in the bushes would keep us out of their radar either. Still, it was the only option we seemed to have, so I followed Brother into the brush and hunkered down to try and escape detection.

The ground was uncomfortable in this squatting position, to say the least, and the twigs from the bush kept poking at my skin, though I don't think I was suffering nearly as much as Brother was. My skin was much more equipped for this sort of thing than his human skin was, and even I was uncomfortable. I could only imagine how this felt for someone who was truly human.

"They're around here somewhere," I heard one of the centaurs say as their footsteps got closer, "I can smell human blood, crying to be spilled." Great, so someone else used the poetic language I'd adopted as of late? Wait, why did that matter to me so much compared with what he had said?

I turned to face my brother. "They can smell us," I whispered, "If we stay here, we'll be caught for sure."

"But we can't outrun them!" Brother whispered back.

That was true. It seemed that there would be no way out, and I was scared. My heart rate began to accelerate, and while I wasn't even sure if my kind was capable of sweating, it sure felt like I was, particularly since the makeup I had been wearing was beginning to melt off and spill down onto the ground. It appeared that when I went back to Winry's house…if I got back…that she was indeed going to receive the full story of what had been happening, since after one look at me, we would be forced to explain.

I tried to think of what to do, whether to jump up and sprint away and risk being chased, or to just sit here and wait for the things to attack us. Neither option seemed reasonable, but the tension in the decision caused me to become paralyzed, and I remained where I sat. I knew they were going to find me any moment, but I couldn't move a muscle.

Finally the clopping noises stopped right in front of our bush. "They're here," said one of the centaurs, "I can smell the human with him, though the other has regained his fay scent." We were cornered. We were doomed. There was no escape. I was scared.

Then one of the centaurs kicked at the bush, causing Brother to yelp in surprise. The laughter following indicated that they had clearly heard that yelp, and knew about our hiding place now beyond a doubt. Apparently Brother realized the futility of hiding any longer as well, because he stood up in plain sight of them, holding a hand over his forehead.

I gasped as I realized that that must have been where the centaurs had kicked him. How badly had he been hurt? If they hurt him bad, then they were soon going to wish that they had never crossed paths with me, just as soon as I learned how to hurt them back.

The centaurs then turned their attention toward me. They had heard me when I had gasped. I sighed and shrugged. There was no point in hiding now, so I stiffened my leg muscles…

And jumped up while simultaneously throwing a punch into the nearest centaur's jaw. He hadn't seen that coming, and so staggered back a couple feet, though he quickly recovered by shaking his head and letting out what sounded like an angry whinny. I didn't realize that the top part of them behaved like horses as well, but I had to confess that I didn't yet know much about the realm of fay. Speaking of which…

"Brother, can I borrow your glove?"

Brother turned to me with a confused expression on his face, but he nodded and began to take off one of his gloves without asking why. Nope, that was the wrong one. "No, Brother, I want your right glove. That way your automail can be free to cause some damage."

"But…" he began to protest, "If they locked you up, aren't they immune to iron?"

"There's only one way to find out," I said as I slipped on the glove that he had handed me, "I didn't see how they got me in there, after all. Hand me your pocket watch."

Brother's eyes shot up, and I could see that he was hesitant to hand it over, which I could understand, but this wasn't the time to be wavering. I had a glove on for protection, and I wasn't planning on damaging the watch…too much. He finally conceded and tossed the watch my way, and then jumped out from behind the bush and jammed his right fist into the nearest centaur. As I had guessed it might, it did give a positive reaction of burning to the victim. The centaurs were just as much fay as I was.

I grabbed the pocket watch by the chain in my gloved hand and began swinging it around in a circle. Only an idiot would dare penetrate that, because they knew quite well that they would be hurt by it if they tried. Was their grudge big enough to become downright suicidal?

Apparently it was, because a couple centaurs came charging in my direction, but they weren't too hard to repel by smacking their faces with the watch. I winced as I watched the scald marks form on their faces where the watch had hit them. I knew what that felt like, and I hated having to be the one to cause it, but this was war.

Suddenly I was jerked out of my thoughts Brother's sudden scream. I turned towards him to see what was the matter, and I saw that he had been pinned down on his back by a couple of centaur hooves and a large stone holding down the automail arm. These guys were clearly not amateurs, even if they seemed a little bit stupid at times in my opinion. There seemed no reason to me to go after people that had never done anything to them.

"Brother!" I called, knowing that it wouldn't do any good. I could tell that he was in pain and barely able to breathe from the pressure on his chest, but if he'd been able to speak then, he would have merely told me to run and leave him behind, which was not acceptable in my opinion. I wasn't leaving without him with me.

I clenched my fists. This had gone too far. No one hurts my brother and gets away with it! I dropped the pocket watch and pulled off the glove. I didn't really even know what I was doing, just following instinct I guess. Without thinking, I raised my fists over my head and violently threw them in the direction of the centaurs.

My fists didn't make contact with anything, though that was apparently not my intention, because I had gotten a very sudden tingling sensation in my hands, followed by a million little particles of light shooting out of them and hitting the offending centaurs. They tried batting the particles away from them, but it didn't help, as more and more of them kept coming from my hands. Finally, a centaur crumpled over onto the ground from exhaustion. He was followed by another one, and he by still a third. Soon, they were all sprawled over the ground, gasping for breath like they had just run out of energy. I stole my chance and ran over to my brother and hoisted him up.

"Brother, are you okay?"

"I'll…be fine…Al…" he said between breaths. His eyes were closed for the moment as he caught his breath, but he soon opened them to look around at what had allowed me to get so close to him without the centaurs' interference. "Al…is it night?"

I shook my head, "No, Brother, it isn't."

"Then…why can't I see anything?"

"What do you mean you can't see anything?"

"I think I must've gone…blind?"

I gave a very startled reaction, needless to say, and was practically shaking my brother, begging him to tell me that it wasn't true, but he couldn't tell me any different. He had seen my strange particles of light, but that had been the last thing he saw. Now I understood, at least I guessed I did. I was furious when I produced those particles. If he had gotten hit with them, it would have had a negative effect on him as well.

I threw my head into his chest and started crying. "I'm sorry, Brother, I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be," he said, placing his arms around me, "Besides, I can see again now."

"You…what?" I jerked my head away from him and looked up into his face. His eyes were running here and there around the forest. Clearly he had his sight back, but how?

"I can see," he repeated, "But I can see…a little bit too much! Who are all these people standing around watching us?"

I sighed and rested my head against his chest once again. "I guess that I somehow managed to give you the sight. I see a lot of people around too."

Brother then looked down at me and chuckled as he ruffled my hair. "You need to learn to control that pixie dust of yours. You hit me with it twice."

I smiled. "Sorry, Brother, I'll try to get better at it." We both laughed a bit and then made our way out of that area. We didn't want to be around when the centaurs woke up.

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_Wowie! What a long, exciting chapter! I'm going to have to write a long chapter to respond to this, luckily for you readers. Now I've just got to figure out what to do. In the meantime, some of you leave reviews for agent's awesome chapter!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Yay, I finally finished my chapter. In my defense, it was finals week at school, and then I had a concert in orchestra and had to go see my younger brother's band concert, so things were a little hectic, to say the least. I'm sorry I took forever to write this, but at least it's longer than my usual chapters._

_Do you really think that agent and I would be writing this if either of us owned Fullmetal Alchemist? If you do, then you are a sad, strange little reader, and yopu have my pity. Farewell. :D_

Al and I walked silently through the forest together, looking around us curiously. After the battle most of the dryads had stopped staring at us and continued on with their business, though some still watched us, obviously intrigued by a human and pixie traveling together. I sighed and closed the book we had borrowed from Winry. I couldn't read with so many different sets of eyes on us.

"Brother?" Al asked softly, and I turned to look at him. "What do you think the Seelie Court is? Am I in trouble?"

"No, I don't think so," I said slowly. "This is just hunch, but it seems like so many other things with fay are different from the human world that their definition of 'court' is different from ours. Besides, it could always be a royal court."

"I hope not," Al said nervously. "I have no idea how I should act around a queen."

"I'm sure you'd do fine," I laughed. "So, do you have any idea which way we have to go to get to this Seelie Court?" Al shook his head, and I sighed. I had tried to get whatever information I could from the book we'd borrowed, but all I'd managed to learn was that the Seelie Court was generally kinder to humans, while the Unseelie Court was more malicious. Though neither of them truly liked humans.

Suddenly, I froze as I heard footsteps crunching through the forest. I turned worriedly to Al and mouthed the word "Centaurs?" But he quickly shook his head. He pointed behind us, and I nodded, understanding that he was telling me that we had left the centaurs behind us, and the footsteps were coming from in front of us.

I listened closer, and realized that the footsteps were also too light to be a centaur. It sounded like the footsteps of a human, or at least someone human sized. I looked around quickly, but then realized that there were no bushes nearby to hide in for once. Whoever, or whatever was coming towards us, we would have to face directly.

I felt myself unconsciously shift into a position that would make it easier to defend myself. If the person ended up being an enemy, I knew I wouldn't go down without a fight.

I felt my muscles tense as young boy about the same age as me and Al came into view. His clothes almost looked like they had been made from plants, but then I saw a ripple move through his shirt that was much too fluid for plant-clothing, and I decided that his clothes must be made from cloth. He would have blended in easily with his surroundings if it weren't for the shock of blond hair on top of his head.

"Edward Elric?" he asked, looking at me. I just narrowed my eyes and felt my fists tighten, wondering who the hell the kid was. Something about him was maddeningly familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He rolled his eyes and looked over at Al. "Fay of Water?"

"The dragon called him the Faerie of Water," I interrupted. The boy scowled slightly and glanced back at me.

"Then the dragon was being disrespectful," he said simply before looking back at Al. "He shall be punished if you wish it, sir."

"No, that's alright," Al croaked out. I smirked slightly, wondering if he was more surprised by the arrival of the boy, or the fact that someone had called him sir. "You- You're the one who rescued me from the centaurs," Al stuttered, and I looked at the boy in surprise. He grinned proudly and put his hands on his hips with a nod.

"Who are you?" I asked suspiciously as I scrutinized the boy. I noticed that his eyes were actually golden, like mine. Strange. I'd never seen that on anyone other than Hoenheim.

"I'm a human that was raised in the fay world," the boy explained simply. "Or more commonly known as a Changeling."

Suddenly, something in my mind clicked together, and I felt myself stumble backwards. Blond hair. Golden eyes. A _Changeling_. My throat involuntarily tightened, and I was barely able to stammer out one sentence.

"You're- You're my brother, aren't you?"

"No, I'm a gnome, smartass," he shot back with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, you're certainly short enough to be one," I snapped back, slightly wondering why I was resorting to short insults. But hey, the kid really was shorter than me, and he was giving me backchat, so he deserved it.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE CAN MAKE CLOTHING OUT OF PIXIE DUST PARTICLES?!?!"

Al and I froze as the boy ranted and lunged towards me. Can anyone say déjà vu?

I quickly placed my automail hand on his forehead and looked over at Al for help. Al gazed at me seriously for a minute before he suddenly started cracking up. I scowled as he clutched his sides in helpless laughter and fell to his knees. Meanwhile, the blond boy – my brother – was swiping at me furiously, but wasn't able to reach.

"I wonder… if that… comes from… mom's side… or dad's side?" Al choked out as he laughed and tears started sliding down his cheeks. I scowled, but luckily the boy had finally started calming down.

"I'm here to help show you to the Seelie Court," he explained as he brushed himself off, still glaring slightly at me. I huffed and crossed my arms across my chest. "And there's also a well known band of centaurs here that have a bit of a grudge with the pixies."

"So we've noticed," I mumbled, remembering the fight recently that had lead to the still throbbing cut on my forehead. I looked over at Al and noticed that his forehead was creased in an unusual frown. I softly placed a hand on his shoulder, wondering what was making him so upset.

I mean sure, this kid was my _biological_ brother and all, but I didn't even know him. Al wasn't going to get replaced anytime soon, or anything like that. He knew that, didn't he?

"Can you control your pixie dust yet?" the boy asked, turning to look at Al. Al quickly shook his head, and I smiled as I remembered what had happened when he'd last used pixie dust. Those centaurs were going to have on hell of a headache when they woke up.

"Okay, they assumed that when they sent me, luckily," the boy said with a slight sigh. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial with a sort of golden liquid in it. "They know you haven't gone through the ceremony yet, so they sent me with a few helpful materials."

"Who sent you?" Al asked, staring at the vial.

"The Fee Council of the Seelie Court," the boy answered simply. "They're the people in charge in the fay world. Anyone who decides not to follow them – like the centaurs – ends up in the Unseelie Court."

"So then it's not a court with a judge?" I said, remembering Al's earlier question. The boy looked at me like he didn't even know what a judge was. I took it as a 'yes.'

"What is that?" Al asked, motioning towards the vial with the golden liquid. The boy smiled and pulled out the cork.

"Raw pixie dust," he answered, carefully pouring a small amount into his hand. I then noticed that it wasn't actually a liquid, but an extremely fluid powder, just like what I had seen Al use earlier.

"It's better when an actual pixie uses it," the boy continued, "But considering that you can't control your pixie dust and neither I nor Brother can even create it…" the boy shrugged. He then carefully sprinkled the pixie dust on the ground. I watched in amazement as a small plant poked out of the ground where he'd sprinkled the pixie dust. The tiny plant then started stretching upwards rapidly, as if time had sped up.

The small plant quickly grew and turned into a tree with small green fruits that was at least twice as tall as I was. The fruits then bubbled and expanded outwards, their skin changing colors gradually (though gradually was very relative with the strange tree) until the green fruits had become big red apples.

"What did you call him?" Al asked softly. I tore my eyes away from the tree to see that Al was staring at the boy with a strange expression. The boy seemed confused for a moment, but then remembered what he had last said.

"Brother," he answered Al simply. "What's wrong with that? I thought that was the normal title for younger brothers referring to older brothers in human culture."

"Well, it would be for _normal_ brothers," I said, glancing over at Al. He had crossed his arms over his chest, and seemed to be shimmering slightly. I wondered if that was the pixie dust I kept hearing about. "But I don't even know your name, so I don't think we qualify as normal brothers."

"Well, _technically_, my name would be Alphonse Elric," he grinned at me. "But you guys can call me Anselm." He then turned and started walking down the path. Al and I glanced quickly at each other before following behind him.

"Would you please clarify for me why you left that apple tree?" Al asked as we walked.

"To distract the centaurs," Anselm answered simply. "They love apples so much they won't be able to resist. And then they'll most likely get into a fight over dividing the apples among themselves. War between centaurs have been fought over apples. And even if they do manage to divide them peacefully, then there's a sleeping drug in the apples. That tree will definitely give us enough time to get to Adomadren."

"What's Adomadren?" I asked.

"What about the dryad?" Al asked simultaneously.

"Adomadren is one of the biggest fay cities in the world. It's where the Fee Council is being held this year, and where we're going," Anselm told me, and then looked over at Al. "And there was no dryad for that tree. There never is when you create something with pixie dust. Soul magic is one of the most dangerous things a fay can do. Anyone who messes with it ends up horribly injured or dead. In fact, there has only been one successful pixie in history so far."

"Who was successful?" Al asked curiously.

"You," Anselm answered simply. "The whole fay world is in an uproar because of you. They thought you were gone when you first performed soul magic."

My eyes widened as I realized that he was really referring to the horrible night Al and I had tried to bring back our mother. Human transmutation was equivalent to "soul magic" in the fay world. I looked over at Al to see if he had reached the same conclusion I had. By the look on his face, I guessed that he had.

"But then you actually managed to come back," Anselm continued. "And you're going through normal fay puberty and everything. Half the fay community thinks you should be welcomed back with open arms before something else happens to you, while the other half believes you should be declared dead. It's a very controversial issue. That's why you've been summoned to the Fee Council. They have to decide what to do with you."

"So I _am_ in trouble," Al murmured softly. I looked over at him to offer what little reassurance I could, but then paled as I noticed that he was floating a few inches above the ground. The slight shimmering was also around him, making him almost look as if he was underwater.

"Um, Al?" I tried nervously. He looked over at me, and I quickly pointed downward. Al looked down at his feet in surprise, but instead of falling down like the last time, he gracefully floated down to the ground. He flexed his fingers experimentally, and then aimed them towards the ground. Light shot from his fingers, and a small patch of green grass sprouted from the path.

"Hey, don't waste that!" Anselm called out. We both looked back to him, though I wanted to stare at the strange golden light that was surrounding both of Al's hands. "If you've got pixie dust on hand, we can use it to fly to Adomadren. I don't have enough for all three of us to fly all the way there, but you could definitely make enough. Just give me and Brother both some and we can all fly there."

"Um, okay," Al said nervously. He carefully held his hands over Anselm's hands and started rubbing them together. The golden light fell from him until a small handful (already much more than the vial Anselm had) was sitting in Anselm's palms. Al then turned to me and repeated the process. My hands tingled as the strange substance touched me.

"Okay, spread it on your chest," Anselm told me. "That's closer t your heart and it amplifies the reaction. It will respond to any strong emotion, but it works best with happy thoughts. And of that, love is the best." He then turned to Al and added, "We'll hold your hands in case you stop making pixie dust in the middle of the flight. Our pixie dust will last for a while, so you won't fall. Now everybody focus on a happy thought and we'll get going."

I shut my eyes and searched my mind for a happy thought but then realized that there wasn't very many happy events I could focus on. I needed something strong; something that would make me feel like I could fly, despite the laws of gravity.

I then suddenly remembered the dream I'd had from the night we had slept in the accommodating tree. It was just a simple dream, but it was the happiest thought I could think of. It was just a dream of mom, Al and me sitting in an open field and talking. All of us were normal and healthy, and just enjoying one another's company.

I opened my eyes, wondering why nothing was happening. Al grinned and waved at me, and then I noticed that the ground was much farther below me than when I had last checked.

"Alright, let's go," Anselm said, floating up to join us. He and I both grabbed one of Al's hands, and together we set off at a much faster pace than before.

Even though we were flying, we still didn't reach our destination until night had fallen. Though part of what slowed us down was the fact that Al stopped making pixie dust in the middle of the journey and Anselm and I had to carry him the rest of the way, while still both concentrating on our thought that kept us in the air. At Anselm's direction, we touched down in a large darkened clearing. The entire place looked deserted, and the only inhabitant was a small squirrel.

"This certainly doesn't look like one of the largest fay cites in the world," I commented. I looked over at Al and then realized that he was looking up. Curious to see what he was so entranced by, I slowly followed his gaze and peered up into the trees.

"Oh."

The treetops told a completely different story from the ground. Millions of tiny lights sparkled among the branches, and I could see the dark shapes of many intertwining pathways and building connected right to the tree trunks. Even in the dark, I could see that they had taken special care not to harm any of the trees.

"Are the trees okay with that?" I said softly, my thoughts wandering back to the tree that had let us sleep in her branches overnight. That small favor seemed like nothing compared to what the fay had done with the trees.

"Of course they are," Anselm answered simply. "These trees are the oldest in the forest. When Adomadren was first built, the elders took special care to get the trees approval on everything concerning the city. The trees still hold an honored place in society today. They're even the elders in the Fee Council."

I nodded mutely, still awed by the hugeness of the city above me. I couldn't see any people out at such a late hour other than a few people with lanterns that I suspected were the guards.

"They'll have rooms prepared for us by now, I'd wager," Anselm continued. He then turned and walked towards one of the enormous trees. He smiled upwards and gently placed a hand on the trunk. He then twitched his fingers a few times, almost as if he was playing piano. There was a slight clatter from above, and then a rope ladder fell down in front of us.

"You have to do the right finger taps or it won't work," Anselm said with a grin before swiftly climbing up.

"I swear, that boy enjoys showing off that he knows more than other people," I muttered as I watched Anselm scurry up the tree.

"Which you never do?" Al grinned at me before quickly climbing up. I scowled and hurried after him. The rope swayed slightly with both our weight, so I balanced before moving on.

"It is not!" I called out to Al as I climbed up through the darkness. Al just laughed slightly.

The truth was, even though I could see the similarity between Anselm and myself, there was still something about Anselm that reminded me of Al. Or maybe there was something about Al that reminded me of Anselm. Either way, somehow, they both shared something. I wasn't sure what exactly, but I knew it was there. Maybe it had something to do with the whole changeling business.

"This is where you'll sleep tonight," Anselm said when we stopped in front of a door he looked at Al and smiled bitterly. "This is where your real family lives. They've been waiting a long time to finally see you. And in the morning, Casimir, the river spirit, said he would like to talk to you. The Fee Council is tomorrow evening."

"You make it sound like we won't be staying together," Al said with a nervous smile. I looked back over to Anselm nervously.

"We won't be," Anselm said simply. I could feel my eyes widen at the same time as Al's eyes as we both looked worriedly at each other. "We're humans," Anselm continued, "We have to stay in another building with the other two humans."

"No," Al said stubbornly. "Brother and I stay together. If they won't let us sleep in the same building, then we'll go sleep on the ground. Right, Brother?"

"Um…" I looked at the house behind Al, remembering what Anselm had said. This was his _real _family. "Al," I said softly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You have the second chance we've always wanted. You've got a family who loves you waiting in there for you. You probably have a mom… and a dad," I said, feeling a slight swell of anger in my chest as I thought of _that man_. "Just go in there, okay? We'll see each other tomorrow," I said, biting my lip slightly. I didn't really want to leave Al, but I knew it would be better for him to actually meet his family, even if I knew I would never have the same chance.

"Okay," Al said uncertainly after hesitating for a minute.

"Goodnight, Al," I smiled slightly.

"Goodnight," Al responded softly before reaching out and hugging me tightly. He surprised me slightly by hugging me so suddenly, but then I smiled and hugged him back before pulling away.

"May the night wash over you gently, sir," Anselm said with a slight bow.

"Um, goodnight," Al said, once again slightly flustered by someone calling him 'sir.' I smiled again, then turned and walked away with Anselm.

"Why do you call him sir, anyway?" I asked as he led me down the path.

"Because he's a fay and I'm a human," Anselm told me. "I was taught to call all fay 'sir' or 'ma'am.' If an elder ever catches me not addressing them properly, I lose a meal for the day. I've actually gone without food for an entire day plenty of times because I don't show 'proper respect,'" Anselm grinned. "I'm lucky I called him sir as many times as I did. I'm supposed to do it about every other sentence." I laughed, and then we continued on in silence.

"So who are these other humans, anyway?" I asked curiously, thinking back to what Anselm had said earlier.

"They're twins," Anselm told me. "But one was switched with a fay child as a baby. As they grew up, they were both normal, but then the fay girl hit puberty and started looking more like a fay. She was put in a circus and beaten until her fay family intervened and decided to switch them back. I've been friends with the human girl since we were both little. But now she and her sister are going to have to leave in a few days and never come back."

"Why?" I asked quickly. "What did they do?'

"They didn't do anything," Anselm shrugged. "The pixie girl just decided she wanted to be a full-fledged fay, which means that she has to reject her human family and never see them again." I inhaled sharply at the thought.

"Does that mean that Al and I will have to-?" I asked softly. Anselm sighed and looked down at his feet.

"It depends on the choice he makes," Anselm said softly. "I just hope he makes the right choice. Because he's the first pixie to successfully perform Soul Magic, everyone wants to know what will happen. His and the Fee Council's decisions will be retold for centuries."

"But we didn't really 'succeed,'" I said, shuddering slightly as I remembered back to that day. "If we had succeeded, then mom would be here."

"Maybe if you think in terms of Human Transmutation," Anselm countered. "That says that humans consist of a body, mind, and soul. But we're talking in terms of Soul Magic, which says that a being needs only a soul to exist. You may have failed at Human Transmutation, but you didn't fail at Soul magic. Together, you both successfully pulled your mother's soul back to this world." With that, Anselm opened a door and walked into the building in front of us, leaving me on the doorstep with an astonished expression on my face.

"W- What?"

_Ta-da! I did it, I did it! –dances- Now click on that little review button so that I don't feel like all my efforts were in vain, okay? S'alright? S'alright. Good. And I'm sorry this wasn't posted as soon as I finished it. My Internet went down for a bit, and now that it's back up, I can post this. Wahoo. _


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Hmmm...there are too many fun possibilities that can be had with this story, and the more I study on faeries, the more fun possibilities I find. ((I'm actually reading a book on them right now, which is what gave me the idea for the end of this chapter)) Now I'm curious to see what Addict will come up with in response to this. That means you've got to update soon, Addict! Everyone, tell Addict to update soon.**

**Um, anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

_And before I forget, we don't own Fullmetal Alchemist either. And I don't feel like being especially creative about the disclaimer today, so nyah!_

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My fingers twitched in nervousness as I silently watched Brother and Anselm walk away. I knew that Brother was just trying to be nice, but I had almost never slept apart from him, and I was feeling pretty scared right then. It would have been one thing if I had been sleeping on the ground by myself, but I was expected to sleep with complete strangers, without my brother around. How could anyone expect me to pull this off? Couldn't everyone see that I needed my brother around?

I sighed and turned to the door of the building I was to enter. I might as well get this over with. I would never forgive myself if I didn't bother to meet my real family, now that I knew I had one, and naturally, Brother wouldn't let me live it down either. I reached out my hand to push open the door. It gave more easily than I would have expected it to. Apparently, it wasn't made out of wood, but out of carefully woven leaves. That made sense, now that I thought about it. Collecting wood killed trees, but collecting leaves did not. I needn't mention that there was no doorknob on the door either, since that would've burned a lot of hands to have to touch such a thing in the realm of fay.

There wasn't really much to see upon entering the house either. It didn't resemble a human house except in the way that it had walls, a ceiling, and a floor. After that, the similarities stopped. What reminded me of large bay leaves made up the walls, spread out side by side to complete a large circle around the house. The leaves gently curved upward and were tied in place at the top to make an almost spherical room. The only surface that was even remotely flat was the floor, which had nothing on it but a couple plant-woven blankets spread out on it, I assumed for the purpose of sleeping. The walls had occasional breaks in them to let in light, which at nighttime came from the lanterns, or to connect with other spherical rooms.

I sighed and set foot into the room. The floor felt soft beneath my feet and gave a little bit under my weight, but it was still able to hold me up. That must've been an example of fay magic. "H-Hello?" I called out, the nervousness betraying me in my voice. If someone didn't come out to meet me soon, then I knew that I was going to turn right around and go out to find my brother.

Fortunately, or was it unfortunately, they didn't keep me waiting long. A figure of a man appeared in one of the windows that connected to the other rooms and quickly climbed through. When he fully emerged, he stood up and looked at me. His skin was green, just like mine had become, but he was a little bit taller than me. He was smiling very broadly and looked slightly amused, probably due to the wide-eyed look that I was giving him.

He turned around and called out to someone else, and a moment later, another figure appeared in the window. It turned out to be a woman, close to my size at present, green skin, and even a pair of translucent wings stemming out from her back that reminded me of dragonfly wings. She smiled at me and then rushed towards me, her arms outstretched.

"It has been so long since we've seen you!" she said as she threw her arms around me, "Now my little boy is all grown up. You look just like your father."

The man smiled at this comment, and I assumed that he must've been my father to have reacted that way. I didn't really know how to tell family resemblances among fay since I had been among humans for so long, but I couldn't honestly say that I _didn't_ resemble him. We even both shared the trait of not having wings.

She finally let me go and then began excitedly talking and moving about. "You're going to have to tell us everything that has happened to you since we last saw you. We've heard about some of the trouble you've gotten yourself into, but I was wondering if you had anything else you would be willing to tell us. Oh, look at you, you look tired. Here, come lie down for now; we can talk in the morning. We'll let you have Anselm's old room. What am I talking about? You're the real Anselm!..."

I lost the train of her speech after she had mentioned that, though she was talking so fast that she wouldn't have noticed my lack of attention anyway. I had remembered Anselm mentioning that his name was technically 'Alphonse Elric', and then there was that bit about the dryad saying that Alphonse wasn't my real name. Did that mean that my name was really Anselm, but that since I had switched places with that other kid, that he ended up getting called by my name and I by his? This thinking was making my head hurt.

I settled down onto the mat on the floor in Anselm's old room a few minutes later, after my pixie father had managed to drag my pixie mother away, telling her that I needed my rest for the big day tomorrow. She had left after that, albeit reluctantly. I supposed that I couldn't really blame her. I would probably have acted exactly the same way if I were in her stead.

I sighed and pulled the plant-woven blanket up closer to my chin. It was really rough compared with the cotton or wool which I was used to, but it did the job, so I couldn't complain. I wondered how Brother was doing. Was he as lonely as I was feeling? My family seemed really nice, but they were complete strangers to me, and I just wanted my brother back. I hoped that I would get some say in my fate as to what would be done with me. This realm intrigued me very much, but it was completely unfamiliar to me. I had been raised in the human realm, and that's where I felt I belonged, though I wasn't sure that they would accept me there anymore, since I looked like this. I finally closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off to sleep. They were right, I was very tired, and I was going to need my rest for the upcoming day.

The next morning, I was awakened by birds twittering in the treetops and by the most beautiful singing I'd ever heard. I listened in silence for a few moments to try and understand what was going on, and then I realized that these were merely fay singers. They were probably dancing too. From what I knew about fay, this was a rather ordinary event for them, but the singing still sounded extraordinary to me, since I had never heard the like before.

I finally got myself up, made my bed as best I could, and then entered the main room of the building in order to try and locate my parents. No such luck. They had probably gone off somewhere to either gossip to the neighbors about their famous son, or they were singing and dancing with the rest of them. I honestly didn't know what fay normally did in their day to day lives, so those were just guesses. I shrugged, opened the door, and went out.

I wanted to find Brother again, but I wasn't sure where to look. I could have just waited around, hoping that Anselm and Brother would find me on their own, but I wasn't patient enough to do that, so I turned and began walking along a random pathway. It had to get me somewhere, at least. If I got lost, these beings seemed to know how to track me anyway.

As I had expected might happen, it wasn't long before I felt a tap on my shoulder, so I spun around to face...Anselm. I didn't know that he could track me as well, being human, but maybe he had connections in this realm. "Do you know where our brother is?" he asked.

I sighed and had to fight down a twinge of jealousy at his use of the word 'our'. "I haven't seen him," I said, "I was just wondering the same thing myself."

Anselm growled under his breath and then started to scratch at his forehead as though trying to place his thoughts together. "When I woke up this morning, he was gone. Does he make a habit of that?"

I shook my head. "Not usually. He tends to sleep a lot...unless he's feeling uncomfortable about something."

"Well, it is a new environment for him, isn't it?" said Anselm, still rubbing at his forehead. "Okay, so when he's feeling uncomfortable, what's the first thing he usually does upon arising?"

"Same thing as he always does," I said, "Eat."

Anselm narrowed his eyes and stared right through me. "I hope you're joking."

I nervously fidgeted with my hands and didn't make direct eye contact as I said, "Um...no?"

Anselm then threw his arms up in the air in frustration and shouted, "Oh for the love of..." but didn't bother to finish the statement. I wasn't sure if he just couldn't figure out what to say after that, or if it was just that such a statement was rude in the fay realm. I didn't bother to ask though, because he promptly began marching off in some random direction, so I sped up to keep pace with him. Since he knew this city so well, he might very well know where my brother had gone if he had indeed gone to find some food.

Sure enough, we soon came to a huge gathering that seemed to be some sort of food court. This was certainly not what I was used to back in the human realm. Humans normally prepared and ate their own food in their own homes. I guessed that the fay didn't, at least, not in this city.

"He's probably here somewhere," said Anselm suddenly, "Can you track him...sir?"

I shuddered. He had just called me sir again, and I wasn't sure why he kept doing so, but I didn't think that this was the time to ask him. I cleared my throat and said, "How am I supposed to...track him?"

Anselm rolled his eyes like he thought I was an idiot and then turned to face me directly. "You grew up together, didn't you? You must be familiar with his particular energy vibration by now. Concentrate on finding that particular vibration, and you should be able to track him down."

"I'll-I'll try," I said, though I wasn't sure if I could keep to my word. I didn't know how to use any of these new powers yet, and I was feeling overwhelmed at all the new things I was being exposed to. I wasn't even sure what exactly he meant by 'energy vibration', but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to make a rough guess and see what happened. I'd told him that I would try, after all.

I pictured Brother in my mind, and mentally sent out a question, or something like that. I wasn't literally asking anything, but my mental probing for his whereabouts felt like I was. My heart rate grew stronger, but at the same time, began to relax. This was the feeling I got whenever I was in the mental state of connection, like when I manipulated that book to open to the right pages in Winry's hands, so hopefully something would happen for my efforts.

I opened my eyes again and saw that Anselm was staring at me quite intently. "Do you know where he is?" he asked, impatiently.

"Well, I have a guess," I said in reply, though I have to admit that I said it a bit rudely. My tone of voice must have gotten through to him, because he stepped back and wouldn't say another word until after I'd made the first move. He had seemed so cocky before, so as to why he was being submissive now, I had no idea. Maybe there were some things going on with him that I didn't yet know about, but I wasn't sure that I should ask him either.

"Sorry," I said a moment later, though he just waved me off as though he wouldn't accept an apology from me, though it didn't seem like he was being rude in doing so. I cleared my throat. "Um, shall we go look for Brother?" He nodded and quickly fell into step behind me as I led the way through a place I'd never been, guiding the person who actually did know how to get around this area. It seemed quite bizarre to me, but I understood that he didn't have the abilities that I did, even if I could barely use them.

After what seemed to be about fifteen minutes had passed, I was finally about ready to give up. It was clear that my powers weren't infallible, and I was getting tired of randomly searching. Maybe we should just go back to where Brother was sleeping and wait for him. Then I heard a familiar voice call, "Hey, Al, over here!"

I looked up, and sure enough, there was Brother, sitting at some sort of makeshift table and, needless to say, devouring a load of food in front of him. Anselm beside me clenched his hands into fists and began growling under his breath. I was beginning to feel nervous. Brother was only eating, so what was the problem with that? Did humans get in trouble for eating here? That thought seemed ridiculous, since Anselm seemed quite healthy.

Without warning, Anselm leapt out from my side and landed a punch squarely on Brother's cheek. "You fool!" he shouted, "What do you think you're doing?"

Brother looked nervously at him, then at me as though I'd be able to help him, but I didn't really see what I could do except to pry Anselm off, and he had only given the one punch. He then turned back to Anselm and said, "Um…eating?"

"That's precisely the problem!" shouted Anselm, "Do you know what you've done?"

"Hey, I didn't steal it!" Brother said as he waved his arms in defense, "People gave it to me without any problem."

Anselm pulled Brother up by the collar of his shirt and put his face close to Brother's to make sure that he got the full impact of his words. "Of course you didn't steal it, idiot! What you've done that's so stupid is eating it!"

I gasped and my hand covered my mouth. "Are they trying to poison him?"

Anselm rolled his eyes and gave Brother's collar an extra shake. "No. They don't have any malicious intent. The problem here is that eating fay food anchors a person to the fay realm, and makes them unable to leave."

"That's ridiculous!" said Brother, who grabbed his shirt and finally managed to pull it out of Anselm's hand. Then he stood up and began to dust himself off nonchalantly. "Eating foreign food is not going to get you stuck in a foreign country."

"Maybe not normally, Brother…but this is the realm of fay."

"So you're siding with him now?" said Brother, sending me a harsh glare. I involuntarily took a step back. "I can leave this place anytime I want." Without another word, he turned and ran off, leaving me and Anselm behind to stare at his receding form. I seriously hoped that Anselm was just joking, though he didn't sound like he was. If he was telling the truth, then Brother would never be able to go home. Brother, what have you done?

* * *

_Ah ha ha, this is going to be fun. I've already got a million ideas for the next chapter, so fret no, I won't take long on this. It's just a matter of figuring out how to phrase my thoughts and put them down on paper… -grins evilly- Oh boy, I'm pumped!_


	11. Chapter 11

_Time to start on my chapter, methinks! Egads, I'm starting to speak like someone out of Shakespeare's plays! Best to be rid of this foul curse before I start on the chapter. Then again, it _is_ faeries, and… drat, I'm back to normal. Anyway, onto the fun!_

_Ermm… Well, I know that _I _own the Fullmetal Alchemist. –grins- He's only three inches tall, and standing on my dresser at the moment. –gets whacked on the head- Oh, fine. We don't own FMA, blah, blah, blah. Put me out of my misery. _

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I ran down the path high in the trees, feeling the blood rushing to my face as I did. First Anselm had punched me, and then he had yelled at me just because I had eaten a little food. He was physically my younger brother, but he sure wasn't acting like it. If anything, he was acting like…

Me.

I felt more blood go to my face and ran slightly faster. There had never been problems like this with Al. I could always count on Al to be my reverse, to always be there for me. I depended on him.

Maybe I had depended on him a little too much. Now that Al was going on a different path, my whole world was falling apart. I had never thought we would be separated from each other, much less by some creatures that weren't even supposed to exist.

I shook my head and continued on. All I had to do was prove that I was right. I could leave this place any time I wanted. I would show Anselm that he wasn't the know-it-all he thought he was. I couldn't get trapped somewhere just by eating the food there.

Could I?

I shook my head a second time to try and clear it. What was going on? All sorts of phenomenon that I might have considered impossible before I was actually starting to believe in, not to mention that Al was a pixie, and I was actually in a town of mythical creatures. It was like science had flown out the window on a cloud of pixie dust.

By then I had reached the tree where Anselm, Al and I had first climbed up into Adomadren. I could see the ladder sitting by a woman who I had come to know as a dryad.

"Could you please let me down?" I said as calmly and politely as I could. The dryad frowned slightly and looked me over.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," she said slowly. I sighed exasperatedly, so she shrugged and rolled the ladder over the side. I nodded gratefully and started climbing down. In the daylight, I noticed that the ladder seemed to be made out of old vines, but it somehow still managed to support my weight.

I knew I had to get out of there, at least to clear my mind for a bit before going back.

I breathed in deeply once my feet had touched the ground. The dryad carefully pulled up the ladder behind me, making the clearing look perfectly normal as long as I didn't look up towards the city in the treetops.

The clearing was large, but not nearly as large as Adomadren. I knew that the city extended far past the clearing into other parts of the forest. I didn't even know how large the city was. It seemed to go on forever.

I slowly walked to the edge of the clearing and looked out. A squirrel scampered through the trees, and I could hear normal birds (not fay singers for once) twittering. It was as if the two worlds had a boundary where the met. As if the world of science and the world of magic were rubbing their sides against one another right on the edge of the clearing. I shook my head and smiled slightly at the ridiculous thought before reaching out a foot to cross the "border."

It was as if my foot was pressing against a brick wall. I pressed harder, and found my toes curling against the surface. I looked down, and gasped at the sight of my foot pressing against air. It was as if there was and invisible wall on the edge of the clearing.

But that wasn't there when I had come in. I frowned in confusion, but then remembered what Anselm had said about the food anchoring me down to the world of fay. Was he really right?

I frowned, and then backed away from the invisible wall. I grit my teeth together determinedly before running up and throwing myself against the wall with all my strength. My flesh shoulder hit the wall painfully for a second before sliding slightly through.

A searing pain immediately flowed into my skin, one that was even worse than automail getting reattached. I screamed out in pain, not having even thought there could be a worse pain. It felt like I was on fire- No, _made _of fire, and falling into a never-ending abyss. The pain spread from my shoulder into my neck, making my scream only increase in intensity.

Suddenly I felt a pair of cool hands rest on my shoulders before quickly pulling me away from the boundary line. I gasped and fell backwards onto the grass, reveling in the cool blades. I pressed my cheek into the ground as I caught my breath and felt the fire fade from me. My rescuer remained silent as I did so, so once I felt strong enough to do so, I lifted my head to thank whoever it was.

I gasped in surprise when I took in the sight of the woman before me.

"M- Mom?" I croaked out, and then realized that my throat was hoarse after screaming like I had. It hurt just to say the one word.

"Shh," she cooed, kneeling down beside me and brushing my bangs out of my eyes. I coughed twice before pulling myself into a kneeling position and resting my head against her. The pain had to be making me hallucinate. That had to be it.

"How is this happening?" I mumbled, more to myself than her. But, being a mother, she heard and understood the muffled words.

"I've always been here, honey," she assured me softly. "But now that you've been anchored to the world of fay, spirits aren't just visible to you, they're solid, physical beings."

"Mom," I said softly, curling against her. A million questions swarmed into my head as my fever faded and I started realizing that she was real, but I only managed to croak out one question that didn't even have to do with questioning her existence. Somehow, it seemed to fit together. Anselm had been right about me being anchored to the fay world, why would he be right about mom's spirit?

"Do you hate me?"

"Why would I hate you?" I heard Mom say softly. I flinched slightly against her.

"Because," I started slowly, "I brought you back to this world when I wasn't supposed to. I made Al lose his entire body. I even joined the Sate Alchemists and killed people." Instead of pushing me away like I thought she would, Mom instead pulled me in closer and stroked my hair.

"That doesn't give me reason to hate you," she whispered. "And I've seen what you and Al have gone through. I'm proud of you, sweetie. You did well. I'll always love you." I looked up at her silently, and she smiled at me reassuringly.

The smile I had ached to see for years. The smile that had pushed me on to try and do the forbidden. The same smile I had thought I would never see again. It was finally too much for me, and I felt the tears come spilling out quickly.

Part of me was weakly protesting that it couldn't be possible; that Mom was dead, but the other part of me didn't care. She was there, smiling and hugging me. I didn't want the feeling to ever go away again.

"I love you too, Mom," I said, feeling my voice wobbling. It was as if I had gone back to being three years old, and the biggest problem in the world was a scraped knee. I was back in the days where problems could be fixed with a bandage and a kiss from a mother.

I heard a twig snap in the distance, and I jerked away from Mom just in time to see Mustang stride into view. His eye connected with mine, and his steps suddenly quickened as his face broke into an expression of relief.

"Colonel B-" I started, but then looked over to my side and saw my mom sitting there. "Colonel?" I corrected quickly, and quickly wiped at my eyes in an attempt to hide the fact that I was crying. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Mustang repeated disbelievingly. "What am _I_ doing here?! You've got half the state looking for you and you ask what _I'm_ doing here?! Do you have any idea what I went through to find you, Fullmetal?!" I opened my mouth to say something, but Mustang decided to answer for me.

"First there was all the trouble when you didn't come back to headquarters on time. Then I called your automail mechanic to try and find out what had happened to you, and she said you had gone into the woods. The_ woods_! So then I had to send a unit into the woods to try and find you. The searched for a whole day, and then half of them came back gibbering about seeing three flying boys or centaurs, or something similar. So I go into the woods to try and find you myself, and you ask me what _I'm_ doing here?! Now, let's go, I've had enough of this hell!" With that, he grabbed my right wrist and dragged me to my feet. I realized that he couldn't see my mom, or else he would have commented on her. It was almost strange to be around a normal human after so long.

I suddenly started panicking when I realized that Mustang was dragging me towards the boundary line of the clearing. I already knew what happened if I crossed that line, and I didn't want it to happen again. I struggled against Mustang, but I was already weak from the last encounter with the boundary line. Mustang just tightened his grip and kept going.

"I can't go," I said desperately. Mustang looked back at me sharply, so I added, "Not without Al." I didn't know how getting Al could possibly help, seeing as mustang would probably wonder why he had green skin and pointy ears, for starters. I was just trying to buy time.

"Well, where is he?" Mustang asked.

"Umm…" I struggled to answer, knowing that I couldn't say that he was in a city in the treetops where pixies lived.

"Dammit, Fullmetal!" Mustang snapped at me. "I'm not going to go through the forest just to find your lost brother! Someone else will find him! Right now, I just want to get you out of this strange forest!"

Boy, I knew that feeling. The forest definitely had a weird feeling to normal humans. Pixes and other magical creatures seemed fine with it, however.

Mustang started dragging me towards the edge of the clearing once more. I pushed against him, but he seemed so much stronger than me. I knew that was probably because I was already drained.

Mustang stopped when I was pressed against the wall. Finally, I had given some resistance, but it was only because of a magical boundary line. I desperately tried to pull away again, but Mustang's grip was still solid. It wasn't like he actually knew what he was doing, but…

"Alphonse! We're down here!" I heard a voice call out suddenly. I snapped my head around, and saw that it was Mom, calling out to Al standing on the edge of the walkway. He flashed a relieved smile at me, but then looked confused when he saw Mustang standing next to me. Mustang didn't seem to hear my mom, and he didn't bother looking up to see Al hurrying down the vine ladder with Anselm behind him.

"I don't have time for games, Fullmetal!" Mustang sighed exasperatedly. I looked back just in time to see my two brothers and mother rushing towards me. I suddenly realized that thanks to the fay world, I had more of a family than I'd had in years. I smiled at them, but then suddenly Mustang pulled me forcefully across the boundary line.

I shrieked out in pain as the sudden fire sensation ripped across my skin once more. But instead of just being of my shoulder, now it was across my entire body. I clawed at my skin, trying to make it stop, but it didn't do anything. I fell to my knees in pain, wondering if pixie magic would manage to kill me.

I suddenly felt a pair of cool arms wrap around my waist and pull me back into the clearing. The fire torture within my body stopped, and I stopped screaming with it. I laid limp in my rescuer's arms, twitching slightly as echoes of heat ran down my arm or leg.

"What the hell happened to you?" I heard Mustang say, but I kept my eyes closed. Opening them was too much at the moment.

"It's a long story," the person holding me laughed bitterly, and I realized it was Al.

"Great, another human in the mix," I heard Anselm sigh. "I'm sure the elders are going to be _so _pleased with this."

"What happened to Brother?" I heard Al ask. I tried opening my mouth to answer myself, but words wouldn't come easily. I was too weak after Mustang had pulled me across.

"He's bound to this world now," Anselm sighed. "He can't leave because he ate the food here. And if he does try to leave, he goes through severe pain."

"I didn't know that," I heard Mom say softly. "I just saw him in pain the first time, but he didn't explain to me why he was so hurt." I opened my mouth again to try and reassure her, but words still wouldn't come. I instead settled for letting my eyes flutter open so I could look at her. My eyelids burned with the effort.

"Could someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Mustang ranted angrily. I found myself staring up into the city above me, so I moved my eyes to try and see where Mom was. Instead, my eyes connected with Al's gray ones. He smiled slightly at me.

"Okay, we found him," Anselm said in an irritated tone. "Now you have to go see Casimir. You're already late. He wanted to see you after you woke up this morning."

"Casimir?" Al repeated confusedly.

"The water spirit of the river nearby," Anselm sighed. "He wanted to talk to you before the Fee Council tonight."

"Oh," Al sighed and looked back down at me.

"It's alright Alphonse," I heard Mom say reassuringly. "I'll get him up to the hospital so he can rest." Al nodded slowly, and then let go of me as Mom kneeled down and grabbed me gently.

"What the hell?!" I heard Mustang say, and then realized that he couldn't see or hear spirits. To him, it must have looked like I was floating. I probably would have had the same reaction if I had seen the same thing a few weeks ago.

"I'll take care of him," Anselm sighed. "Though just to let you know, crow-man, this is going take a lot of explaining on my part and an open mind on your part." I smiled slightly at the fact that Anselm had called Mustang "Crow-man," even though the effort hurt me terribly.

I could looked up at Mom, who was now carrying me back towards the tree. I suddenly realized why the dryad had cautioned me against going down. I didn't know the code to get back up. I had been too swept up in my emotions to think about that earlier. I sighed and rested my head against my mom, and then my world fell into darkness.

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_Haha! I finished way earlier than I thought I was going to! I would have finished it last night, but my mom made me go to bed. So now here I am, three minutes before school and typing it out. Wow, I was very inspired for this! Now review, all you lovely readers! _


	12. Chapter 12

**This one took me a little longer than usual, because there are too many different ideas to try and sort out which are the most important, hehe. Oh well, we'll figure it out. I always do, and Addict always does, so hopefully we don't end up confusing each other in the process, though the confusion is half the fun. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

_Er… Why do I always get stuck dong the stupid disclaimers?! We don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, cry me a river, build me a bridge and GET OVER IT! _

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I wasn't exactly sure where to find this Casimir, since no one had bothered to explain anything to me, assuming that I knew everything there was to know about being a pixie. Thankfully though, I had a pretty good guess as to where to look, considering that he was a river spirit, and I definitely knew where the river was.

I didn't have time to learn the code to get back up into Adomadren, so I had made sure to quickly ask Anselm if he would still be there when I came back so as to let me back in, which he figured he probably would, and then I ran off in the direction of the river. Maybe being a pixie, I should've just used pixie dust and flown there to save time, but I honestly didn't know how to get myself to make it at will yet, so it didn't seem wise to try that.

I finally arrived at the river, but there didn't seem to be anyone waiting for my arrival, which was slightly disappointing. I shrugged and let out a sigh, and then began walking along the riverbank. No one was coming into my field of vision as of yet. Maybe I had to call him. "C-Casimir?" I called, "This is Alphonse Elric...er, Anselm...whatever you people call me." I chuckled self-consciously at my ineptitude in the ways of fay, and then regained my composure and continued. "I was told you wanted to meet with me earlier, but something came up with my brother, so I'm a little late."

Without any further warning, a wall of water suddenly shot up from out of the river, grabbed me, and swept me down into it. I struggled for breath, but it was a futile effort, since the little bit of air I had carried with me was escaping into the water around me and I couldn't surface. Was he trying to drown me? Had I made him that angry simply by arriving a little bit late? Did the fay think like that?

"Calm down, young one, and let go of the air. The water is your element," a voice boomed out of seemingly nowhere. I started to panic. I wasn't sure exactly what the voice meant by that statement, but if I were to expel the remaining air from my lungs, wouldn't I drown? Still, this force that was holding me under the surface of the water wasn't letting me rise up to take another breath, and at that rate, I was going to drown anyway. The air in my lungs was making me quite uncomfortable as it was, so if I was destined to die here, it would be so much easier to just let out the rest of the air and die sooner rather than later.

My strength of will charged through me like fire through my veins. I couldn't fight against the pressure holding me down, but I didn't have to be miserable down here either. I closed my eyes and exhaled the last of my air and awaited the inevitable. I was sure that my lungs were soon going to either start crying out in pain for air, or I would just black out. I hoped it would be the second one of the two. It sounded the least miserable.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly. How long was it going to take for my body to have a reaction to a lack of air? I opened my eyes to check on what was taking so long, and found to my amazement that I still didn't feel any ill feelings towards not having air to breathe. I knew that I was not human, but I thought that I still needed air to survive. Now I was beginning to wonder if that was the case. There was always one way to find out.

I carefully opened my mouth as though about to take a breath, and water instantly rushed in, tempting me to choke, but I refused to let it do so. My chest expanded the way it always did to take in air, only there was no air around, only water, and yet I felt no pain. My chest contracted again to expel my unnecessary breath, and I breathed the extra water out. I couldn't believe it, I was actually breathing water!

"Congratulations, young one, you have successfully learned to let go."

I jerked my head around, trying to find the source of the voice this time, but was unable to identify anyone around me. Or maybe that was precisely it...around me. While it was clearly one entity speaking to me, it sounded like the voice was coming from every direction at once. This being had probably taken the form of the water surrounding me.

Almost as soon as I'd noticed that, however, the water in front of me began swirling and a blue, humanoid shape began to appear. He looked at me, a gentle smile on his face, as his light, wavy, blue hair was gently swaying in the currents. "I am Casimir," he said, "I called you here because I wanted to test your character before the Fee Council tonight, as you are under my element. You have a very open mind, willing to accept new things that were previously inconceivable. You should do well."

"Um," I began, not quite sure how to phrase the question on my mind, but it had been bothering me ever since I had first heard of it, and I had to know, "I thought that pixies were an earth spirit. Why am I the fay of water?"

I saw the laughter reach Casimir's eyes at the sound of my question. It was probably so obvious to the rest of the fay that asking it made me look totally naïve, but I still had to know. "As a Changeling in the mortal realm," Casimir said, "You are undoubtedly familiar with the mortals' calendar system, are you not?"

"Yes," I said, and emphasized my answer with a nod.

"Then," Casimir continued, "You are familiar with their system of applying certain attributes to people depending on when they come into existence?"

It took me a moment to sort that thought out, since he wasn't using the most common sense words he could have been using, but I finally understood what he was trying to ask, and I repeated it back to him in the form of a question. "Are you talking about the personality traits assigned to people by their zodiac signs?"

"Precisely," said Casimir, "We of the fay have a system that compares with their system, though it is not identical. When you first come into existence here, whether your kind is of earth, water, fire, or air, the individual will have an affinity with a particular element as well. Sometimes it will be synonymous with their family's element, and sometimes it will not be."

"And in my case," I said, pointing to my chest, "I was born into an earth family, but individually, I am in tune with the element of water?"

Casimir smiled again. "I think you understand."

"But," I said, quickly putting up my hand to object to the newly implanted knowledge, even though it did make a lot of sense, "I was born in late September. That would make me a Libra, and that's the element of air."

Casimir chuckled patiently and shook his head as if I was a very slow student, which I probably was. "Your changeling counterpart was born in the mortal realm with mortal time and the mortal calendar. You, however, were born in the fay realm, and many things are different here, including the element you are associated with."

I had to admit, even though everything he had said made perfect sense, I was still very confused. There were so many new things to grasp and so many old ideas that I was just expected to let go of that my brain was getting frazzled. I had grown up thinking that I was born on September 29, 1900. If I wasn't born then, when was I born?

Casimir seemed to be able to read the expression on my face, and he decided to try and explain the situation to me again, since I wasn't understanding. "Time doesn't pass here in the same way it does in the mortal realm. Time, as you know it, doesn't even exist here in the same way. A day spent here may be but one second in the realm of mortals, or it may be an entire lifetime. Our realms follow different rules when it comes to the passage of Time, and so the moment when your first moment of consciousness corresponded with that of the mortal realm is irrelevant, since our worlds are separate and distinct."

I hung my head. Now he was attacking the concept of Time that I had grown to accept in my lifetime. No wonder I was so confused. I didn't know how to imagine things without the same concept of Time I had been accustomed to. It seemed that they had some sort of semblance of Time in this realm, since days and nights still persisted, but it was clear that I didn't understand exactly how that concept worked. I was just going to have to push it to the back of my mind for the time being before I got a headache, since I was not going to be able to understand it all at once, that much was clear.

"You learn well for having never known any of this before," Casimir said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I nodded, not caring to respond verbally anymore. He didn't seem to mind. "I will represent your case for you tonight at the Fee Council if you so desire. You have a good heart, a vibrant curiosity, and a very open mind, all of which are qualities embodied by those worthy to call themselves 'fay'."

"Um...okay," I said, not really sure what he was talking about this time, but I didn't think it would hurt to allow him to do what he wanted to do in the first place. He seemed to really care what I was thinking and feeling and respected me for asking questions rather than teasing me for not knowing.

Casimir smiled again and said, "I will see you at the Fee Council," and then the water swirled and his humanoid form disappeared. The pressure that had been holding me down suddenly changed and came from underneath me, pushing me up to the surface and laying me gently on the bank of the river before sweeping itself back into the river.

I sat up and rubbed my head, trying to readjust to being on land again. Water trickled out of my mouth as though I was drooling, but I couldn't help it. It had to come out in order for air to circulate through my body again, and that was apparently the best way for it to do so. Before long, the water was completely out, and I finally took my first breath of air again. It felt good and refreshing, though I finally realized that breathing didn't seem to be a necessity for me anymore, it was merely a habit. I was a nature spirit, not a mortal being, and so I didn't require air to survive, but it helped me to feel more at home to breathe air, so I did.

As soon as I had readjusted to my situation, I went back to the clearing to find Anselm so that he would get the dryad to let me up into the city so I could check on Brother. The Colonel was still there. He and Anselm seemed to be bickering with each other, or something like that. I wasn't sure how long they had been at it with each other, but both of their faces seemed to be quite red, so it didn't seem like it would be a good idea to interfere.

Fortunately, Anselm looked up at that moment and saw me standing there, nodded in my direction and then turned and glared at the Colonel. I felt shivers run down my spine. That boy who was supposed to be me in a way was acting too much like my brother for comfort. Maybe real Elrics acted more like that than like me, with the exception of Mom. But she was a girl, so she was immune to the Elric curse. I smiled at the thought. Those poor Elric boys, they always grew up to be competitive idiots. I placed my hand over my mouth to try and keep myself from laughing, because I knew that Anselm wouldn't appreciate it if he knew what I was laughing at.

Finally he turned away from the still very red Colonel and marched right up to the tree. He wiggled his fingers in the particular way to get the ladder to drop and then he spun around and marched right back to the Colonel. I looked first at the ladder and then at him, wondering if I should be doing something about the situation, knowing how I'd always had to pull my brother off of people. Still, I wanted to see how my brother was doing, and I figured that the Colonel ought to be able to take care of himself, just so long as he didn't eat anything.

I scurried up the ladder and then ran as fast as I could in the direction where I intuited the hospital to be. I'd never been there, and no one had told me where it was, but I just knew where to go, just as I had when I had found Brother at the food court.

Since I knew and trusted my senses a bit more than I had the last time I had used them, I found the hospital in just a matter of minutes. Mom was standing outside of it, as though guarding the place. The building appeared surprisingly small for what I would have thought a hospital should be, but I was guessing that that was because the fay rarely ever got sick or injured, and didn't often need the hospital. I hoped that they knew enough about humans to help Brother, because I certainly knew that he was going to be utilizing their services from time to time, as reckless as he was.

"Mom," I said, stopping in front of her and staring at her with a combination of concern for my brother and awe at seeing her again. I wanted to ask her so much, but I didn't have the time at present. That would have to wait until later. "How is Brother?"

"He's asleep now," she said, "He'll be alright when he wakes up. You shouldn't disturb him right now though, he needs his rest."

"Uh, yeah," I said, trying not to sound argumentative, though I really wanted to see him, just to make sure he was all right. "Would it be fine if I just took a look at him as long as I didn't wake him?"

Mom sighed and her shoulders slumped somewhat. I guessed that she had given in to my request. She never had been able to say no to me very easily. "Alright, sweetie, but make sure that you don't wake him up, okay?"

"I won't," I reiterated. Then she stepped aside, and I pushed the door open and went in.

The room was mostly dark, but it was light by a faint light from within somewhere, which I thought might be potentially disturbing to one's sleep, so its presence confused me. I scanned the room for the source, and almost fainted when I discovered it. Brother was sound asleep, but he wasn't in his bed as would be expected. I knew that human beings were prone to sleepwalking at times, but I'd never heard of anything like this. Not only was his skin emitting the glow that was illuminating the room, but he was hovering a couple feet above his bed, completely unaware of what was going on, judging by the serene expression on his face.

I slowly inched back towards the door. If I awoke him, there would be trouble. That would be quite a start for him to wake up in midair, especially if he fell as a result. As soon as I got out of the door, I turned to Mom again. "What's going on with Brother in there?" I asked.

"What do you mean, sweetie?" she asked.

I made her look for herself, and she seemed just as alarmed as I had been. Apparently I was right, and this wasn't normal behavior for patients in the realm of fay. She grabbed my hand. "Come on," she said, "Something needs to be done. Let's go and find the doctor."

I didn't dare argue.

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Hum dee dum dee hum… I know what's going on. Though that's partly because agent asked me if I would be open to the idea before she decided to write it in. Now, you guys leave some reviews for us, mmkay?


	13. Chapter 13

_Well, here we go with another chapter. This one's going to be a lot of fun, haha. I felt like I was cramming a lot of things in one chapter, so pardon me if it seems a bit rushed. Guess I took a leaf out of agent's book for once. :)_

_Hrm, well, I can't say that I do own Fullmetal Alchemist, because if I do, I'll be killed in my sleep. So that narrows your choices down to one. I'll leave the rest to you. _

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I woke up with a yelp and fell sharply to the floor. It somehow seemed like I had fallen much farther than was possible when one was just falling out of bed, but I didn't care about it. All I was aware of was the fact that my automail sockets felt like they were on fire.

I let out another scream of pain and desperately clawed at my arm, but as soon as my fingers brushed against the cold metal, it felt like they too were on fire. I quickly pulled my hand away and writhed in pain on the floor, wondering what the hell was wrong with me and how I could fix it.

"Get off me," I growled between my teeth, feeling sweat sliding down my forehead very quickly. I could just imagine all the different wires within my arm after seeing Winry work on it so many times. I pushed myself into the fantasy to try and distract myself, imagining the wires each turning into muscles until I just had a normal arm again. The thought comforted me slightly, and helped me forget the burning feeling gnawing at my arm and leg.

I then suddenly realized that I wasn't just distracting myself from the pain, it had actually stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from my forehead with my left hand before pushing myself into a sitting position.

I then froze as I realized I could feel the strange material of the floor beneath my fingers on my right hand. I had gone for so long without being able to feel anything with my right hand that I had forgotten what it felt like. I felt my eyes widen in surprise, and I looked down at my arm.

Instead of the normal metal I was used to seeing, a real, flesh hand greeted me instead. I felt the blood drain from my face before I jerked and looked down at my left leg. It was the same way as my arm, whole and flesh.

I quickly stood up and wiped the sweat off my face. It had to be some kind of illusion. There was no way I could just suddenly have my arm back. That proved that the whole faerie world was just some crazy dream or something. I knew my arm and leg couldn't just be restored by me thinking about it.

I then turned and ran from the room out onto the familiar maze of walkways winding through the trees. I didn't know where I was going, but I just knew I had to get away from the crazy city.

Somehow, without even knowing it, I ended up right back at the same place to go down into the clearing. The same damn clearing that had caused me so much trouble in the first place.

I could see Anselm and Mustang in the middle of the clearing, both with very red faces. I couldn't hear them clearly, but I could tell they were both yelling, probably about the existence of faeries. I would have called out to annoy Mustang even further, but I was too caught up in my own problems to think of it. I instead turned and continued running another way.

Before I knew how it had happened, I had ended back up at the cafeteria where I had unknowingly screwed myself over. I sighed and sat in one of the seats, rubbing at my back, which was strangely itchy. I then sighed and rested my chin in the palm of my left hand.

"Excuse me, sir?" a worried voice asked, and I sighed. "I'm looking for a doctor. You see, my brother, he-" I then cut off the person by turning around and looking them in the eye before we both gasped in surprise.

"Al?" I said in disbelief. "Why'd you call me 'sir'? What's going on?"

"You're asking _me_?" Al squeaked as he looked me over. "What the hell happened to you?! Er, I mean, what the heck. The _heck_," he repeated, looking down at his feet in shame at the sudden outburst.

"Al? Since when do you swear?" I asked worriedly, trying to lock my eyes with Al's. Which was a rather hard task, considering that he seemed to think his feet were the most interesting thing in the world at the time. Al then suddenly snapped up his head and looked at me worriedly.

"Apparently since you start sporting green skin," Al snapped at me. "What happened, Brother?" I felt my eyes widen in surprise, and I looked down at my arm in disbelief. My skin had a slightly greenish tint to it, in a very similar way to Al's skin, only it was a slightly lighter shade, much like when his skin had first started turning green.

I gulped nervously and looked up at Al, who looked just as bewildered as I felt.

"What's going on, Al?" I managed to croak out. Al's eyes just widened and he silently shook his head.

"You got your arm back, Brother?" Al practically whispered. "When did that happen?"

"Just a little bit ago," I said slowly, flexing the fingers of my right hand. "I don't even know how it happened. I just woke up and my automail was…" I paused, suddenly remembering back to when we had been confused by how Al got burned by metal touching him.

"My automail was burning me…" I finished weakly, and noticed the blood drain from Al's face. He obviously also remembered those days well, and I knew that he could understand the pain I had been through all too well.

"What's going on, Brother?" Al said softly.

"I- I don't know Al," I stammered nervously, scratching at my back again. I noticed how worriedly Al was watching me, so I added, "Look, Al, I think that the whole thing in the clearing threw me off balance a bit. I have been feeling a bit nauseous since I woke up. I'm sure that once I'm better my color will go back to normal again."

"Then what about your automail?" Al asked softly. "How do you explain how it just turned into a normal arm?" I paused for a moment before I thought of something to say to Al.

"There's a lot of magic floating around here, Al," I said, slightly wincing at the word I had sworn I would never use seriously. "I've felt it ever since we first came here. And I was just in some type of hospital. There was probably some sort of healing magic in there."

"I guess," Al said slowly, though the look on his face made me believe that he wasn't totally convinced. Even I wasn't totally convinced by my ideas, but I didn't want to dwell on them any longer.

"Now, what about that Fee Council thing?" I said, trying to divert the subject. "When do you have to go to that?"

"Probably soon," Al muttered.

'I'll go with you," I said determinedly, and Al looked at me in surprise.

"No way!" he said quickly. "I'm taking you right to the doctor, whether or not you like it. I don't care if I'm even late to the council. You're way more important." I felt my chest swell at the words, but at the same time I worried for Al. He was a pixie, but he was still attached to me. He was torn between two worlds.

"I'm fine Al," I assured him. "I want to be there with you. Really. I've gotten a lot of my energy back. I can handle it." Al considered me for a moment before sighing and holding his hands up n defeat. I grinned, and we both started walking down the path side by side.

"Do you know where to go, Al?" I asked after a minute. Al wrinkled his nose and considered the question for a minute.

"Yes," he said firmly after thinking about it. I nodded and kept walking with him.

"What happened to Mom?" I asked, remembering the feeling of her holding me close in the clearing. It still surprised me to be able to talk to her again, but I wasn't about to complain about it either.

"We were worried about you," Al said softly. "So we separated. I was supposed to find a doctor while she talked to my… uh, parents. She figured they would know more about what goes on here, and she'd have a bit more of a connection to them than other people."

"Oh," I responded softly. I never wanted to worry Mom, but I was still managing it. I creased my eyebrows and scratched at my back again, wondering why it was so damn itchy.

Finally we reached a large circular building that seemed to be in a central location. The building was huge compared to the other structures of the city, though some buildings in Central could easily beat it, I knew. Even though I hadn't seen the building before, I knew that it would be the place where a council would be held. Al and I both glanced at each other before Al reached out a hand slowly and pushed open the door.

The large circular room was dark in a way that made me think back to the days of when I had taken the state alchemist exam. There was a glowing in the room, and once my eyes had adjusted more properly, I realized it was coming from a row of older people near the front. The glow surrounded each of them, but it almost seemed like they were creating the glow themselves.

"Fay of water, you have been summoned here because you have successfully performed soul magic not once, but twice," an older woman said, standing up and looking down at us. "The first time being when you managed to pull your mother's spirit back to this world, the second time concerning the reattachment of your soul to your body."

"That was me," I said, stepping forward suddenly. "I attached Al's soul to his body. He didn't do that."

"The soul being attached has to cooperate," he woman said, turning to look at me instead. "While you may have thought it was you attaching him, if he hadn't worked with you, his soul would have left his body. He is just as much at guilt as you are." I blinked twice and fell silent, thinking about how awful it would have been if that had happened.

"Do you deny your participation in soul magic?" the woman asked, looking back over at Al. He looked at her with wide eyes for a second before hanging his head with a sigh.

"No," he said softly. "I did that." I could see the people at the front of the room look quickly towards each other, and soon a whispering filled the room.

"You do realize that you are the first fay to ever accomplish that task?" the woman asked, silencing all the others. I suspected that she was some kind of leader, like a queen or whatever form of government they had.

"Yes, I am aware," Al said softly.

"I would like to speak on behalf of the young one," a voice boomed from the shadows. I looked up and saw a man glide gracefully into the center of the room. I watched him curiously, wondering how a person could walk in a way that looked more like ripples across a pond than actual walking.

"He is of my element, as you may know," the man continued, and then I realized that the man had to be Casimir, the water spirit Al had to visit. "The young pixie has many of the qualities that are valued in fay society. He has a good heart, a vibrant curiosity, and an open mind, which he demonstrated to me earlier today. The young one would make an excellent contribution to society."

"Would he be interested in staying here?" the woman asked, leaning forward and looking at Al curiously. Al looked up at her, and then flicked his eyes in my direction instead.

"I would like to stay here and learn more about… everything," he said slowly. "But only if Brother will be able to stay with me." I smiled slightly, and looked back to the woman, who seemed to be considering me carefully. She then sat back in her chair and talked with the people around her.

"You may both stay," she said when she finally turned back to look at us. "But you will be watched carefully. If either you disrupt society, you will both be expelled from the city. River spirit, you will be responsible for the youngling." All three of us nodded, and the woman nodded in response. It seemed like the signal for us to leave, so we turned and walked out of the dark room.

The light outside was already dimming, but it was still enough to make me blink in surprise as my pupils adjusted from the darkness of the council room. All that anticipation and the woman had just let Al and me both stay. I turned to look at Al, and Al grinned at me for a second before his expression suddenly turned to one of shock.

"Brother… what…? When did that…?" Al stammered, pointing to something behind me. I turned around to look, but nothing was there. I looked between Al and Casimir, wondering what they were looking at.

I reached backwards, and felt my fingers brush against something thin and fluttery. I wondered what had gotten stuck to my back, and pulled, but then yelped in surprise when I felt a sharp jerk at the base of my skin.

"What's going on?" I said, spinning around wildly to try and see what had attached to my back. I could catch a glimpse of something translucent and shiny, but I couldn't see it properly.

"I don't know, Brother," Al said softly. "Maybe we should go find Anselm. He might be able to explain this."

"Explain what?" I said, feeling my voice get close to yelling. I didn't mean to sound angry, but the panic rising in my throat wasn't helping. I finally noticed that Casimir seemed to look slightly… watery, and I could see my reflection in him. I leaned forward curiously, but then jumped back in surprise. My eyes had to be playing tricks on me.

Because if they weren't, then I had wings.

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_Yeah, sorry it took me so long to do this chapter. :( First I updated a lot of other fics, and then my life turned into a whole big dramatic mess, haha. I know, I know, excuses, excuses. But hey, I finished the chapter now, so enjoy it, and perhaps leave some reviews for us. ;)_


	14. Chapter 14

_Surprise! Guess who? Technically, this is supposed to be agent's chapter, but a –ahem- little birdie told me she was having trouble after where I left off. So then my lovely muse came along and hit me with the inspiration for this chapter. No, really, he whacked me good over the head, the jerk. Anyway, I had a bit of fun with this chapter, so enjoy. :D_

_Erm, right the disclaimer… Weeell… I'm afraid that while agent and I managed to grab onto the deed for Fullmetal Alchemist for a minute, we were then promptly beat down by the cow security and had the deed dragged from our cold, dead fingers. Then we sprang back to life and decided to write fanfiction instead!_

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No.

Hell no.

I couldn't have wings. It wasn't possible. It went against everything I knew. People couldn't—well, okay, maybe they could fly in this crazy faerie world, I could accept that, but _I_ wasn't supposed to have wings. I was just Ed. Not some crazy pixie or whatever. I was supposed to be normal.

Well, as normal as someone can be after fighting immortals with an empty suit of armor by his side, and getting to be a State Alchemist before even hitting his teen years.

"Brother," Al said softly. I didn't dare meet his gaze. I couldn't. What the hell was happening to me? What was going on? I knew that something had to be wrong with me. Normal people didn't just sprout wings. Wasn't I supposed to be at least _somewhat _normal?

"Brother, please, we just want to help you," Al persisted, reaching out a hand to touch my arm. I shrugged away from him before turning around and running in the opposite direction. I just couldn't handle being around Al.

"Brother!"

I tried desperately to tune out Al as I kept running. The wind whipping across my face felt surprisingly good, despite the fact that it was chilling me down to my bones. I then felt a breeze run across my back and shuddered. That did _not_ feel good. It just felt weird.

"Brother!"

I can't do this, Al. I'm sorry. I just can't handle this world.

"Brother! BROTHER!! Wake up!!"

I—wait, what?

I slowly became more aware of myself and realized that I wasn't running into the wind, instead I was lying in a bed and covered in sweat. I could even feel a slight pressure on my shoulders. But no strange itching sensation on my back. It had all been a dream. I nearly sighed out loud in relief.

"Mmph," I groaned, the details of my dream slowly slipping away from me. I then opened my eyes and looked up into the face above me.

"Al," I murmured softly. I then wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion. Something about him seemed different, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I then suddenly realized that Al was touching my right shoulder. But… he couldn't touch metal. If Al was touching my shoulder, shouldn't he be screaming out in pain? I opened my mouth to say something before realizing that I could actually feel the pressure of his hand against my shoulder, which I shouldn't have been able to feel if I had automail.

I slowly looked down at my arm, almost afraid of what I would see. The last time my automail had turned to flesh I had ended up with a pair of wings. I didn't want a repeat of that incident. I preferred to just stay a normal, boring human.

Sure enough, when I looked at my right arm, not metal, but flesh greeted my eyes. I yelped and jumped out of the bed.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Al asked curiously as he looked over at me. I, meanwhile, was distracted by something else. Like the fact that the floor was made of real wood instead of the crazy springy material I had grown used to.

"Al," I said slowly, staring down at the floor in amazement. I had been starting to believe I would never see a real floor again. "Where exactly… are we?"

"Winry's house, of course," Al answered simply. I felt my mouth drop open in surprise as I looked around the room again. No wonder it had seemed vaguely familiar. It felt like it had been ages since we had last been at Winry's house.

"How'd we get back to Winry's?" I asked quickly, sure that I had a surprised expression on my face. "What about Adomadren? How'd we get away from there? And what about your trial? And Anselm? And… and…" My brain felt like it was about to explode. How could we have possibly gotten back to Reisenburgh? Wasn't I supposed to be bound to the faerie world or something?

"What's Adomadren?" Al asked with a confused look towards me. I looked at him in bewilderment. What the hell did he mean by a question like that? "And who's Anselm? Brother, are you sure you're all right?"

"Al, do you mean you don't remember any of that?" I asked slowly, taking a step towards him. "But you... you were… some changeling or whatever they called you."

"Brother, I think you should go back to bed," Al said to me slowly as he took a step forward. He was almost treating me like some wild animal that couldn't be trusted. I narrowed my eyes and tried to figure out what the hell was going on before I suddenly realized what was so strangely different about Al.

"Al… Your skin's not green," I said in surprise, looking him over carefully. I realized that over time I had actually gotten used to the green skin, even though it was still a bit unnerving. As I looked closer, I realized that his ears also were back to their usual rounded shape. Seeing Al looking normal again was so strangely different from what I had become accustomed to.

"Why would I be green, Brother?" Al asked, and I realized just how confused my poor brother really was. It was almost as if he didn't know anything about Adomadren, as if…

As if it had never happened.

"Al, what's the last thing you remember?" I asked quickly, feeling some sort of hurried panic swell inside of me. Had it all be a dream? Just some crazy dream about faeries and magic? Was it too much too hope that Al and I could just go back to being normal brothers again?

"We both got our bodies back, and then we were on the train home to Reisenburgh when you tripped on the way to Winry's, bumped your head and went unconscious. You've been out for days, Brother, we were all really worried about you," Al told me simply, still looking at me strangely.

"N-Nothing strange has happened?" I stammered out quickly, feeling like I had been hit with another wave of pixie dust. "No flying, dragons, dryads, centaurs, nothing? Everything is perfectly normal and obeying the laws of science again?"

"Nothing strange has happened until you woke up today," Al said slowly, cocking his head as he looked at me. "Really, Brother, I think that you need to go back to bed. You hit your head kinda hard, and you should probably take it easy for a while."

"No, Al, I feel fine," I said quickly, shrugging away from him. "Probably the best I've felt in a while. How about we go outside for a walk?"

"A… walk?" Al repeated disbelievingly, and I nodded with a grin. "Brother, this isn't a suggestion anymore, you really need your rest, something is wrong. I know you, and you don't act like this."

"Nah, I'm perfectly fine," I assured Al quickly. "I just want to go outside with you, that's all. Go outside and not hear any tales about flower women or talking trees for once. How's that sound?"

"Brother," Al repeated, but this time as I looked at him, something within his face morphed, and his eyes and hair both turned golden while he adopted a very familiar smirk. "You need to go back to bed."

"No!" I shouted, stepping away from Anselm in horror. "You're not my brother! Where's Al? What did you do to him, you bastard? I just want Al! Al! Where are you Al?" Anselm just smirked and took a few steps towards me.

"Who's Al, Brother? Don't you know, I'm your _real_ brother. Not some fake," Anselm told me, but I just shook my head and clapped my hands over my ears. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to block him out at all.

"Don't you love me, Brother? Brother, I thought you wanted to go for a walk? Brother… Brother…. Brother!" I snapped and jumped backwards, but felt myself trip on something and fall deep into darkness.

"…A lot of pain…suffering…delusions…may take…few days…"

I frowned and tried to figure out who was talking. It didn't sound like anyone I had ever heard before, and I couldn't even say where the voice was coming from. All I could see was darkness. And the voice kept fading in and out, as if I was listening through a bad phone connection.

"Brother," another voice said softly. I still couldn't tell where the voices were coming from, but I at least recognized that one.

"Al," I called out, but my lips didn't seem to want to cooperate with me and instead it ended up sounding like a half strangled sob. "Al, where are you? So hot…" I realized as I said it that it was indeed very hot within the darkness. It felt like I had been shut inside of an oven along with a cake to bake.

"Just hold on Brother," Al said softly, and I had to strain to hear his words. "We're going to try and help you, just hold on."

"Alright," I said, my voice once again not cooperating with my mind and coming out in some sort of half-garbled language.

I then slowly opened my eyes and found myself lying on my back in the grass outside. It was late out, and the stars were sparkling brightly in the sky. Just from the familiar smell to the air around me I could tell I was back in Reisenburgh. Nowhere else smelled quite like home did.

"Ed?" a soft voice said, suddenly interrupting me out of my thoughts. I jerked up into a sitting position, only to be greeted by a familiar face that I had not seen in far too long.

"Oh, Ed," Winry whispered, the same tears she always had rushing to her eyes once again as she suddenly rushed forward and grabbed me around the neck. "I've missed you so much. Where did you go?"

"I'm sorry Winry," I said softly as I reached out my arms to hug her back. I then realized just how much I had truly missed her while we had been off in the woods. How could I ever have left Winry, one of my closest friends ever? Nothing was supposed to separate us.

But I had still managed to get swept up in some crazy story and then even get bound to the fay world. I tightened my grip on Winry, hoping that this wasn't just some other crazy dream like everything else seemed to be. I had no clue what was reality and what was fiction anymore. Did I have wings? Was Al really a faerie, or not? And was I really hugging Winry on a hill in Reisenburgh, or was that another fantasy as well?

"Winry, I…" I said softly, but felt my throat tighten as I said the words. How could I tell her anything? How could I tell her nothing? She was Winry, I was Ed, things just weren't supposed to turn out like this.

"Please don't leave me again," Winry said softly, and I could feel her tears leaking into my shirt. I felt a swell of anger towards myself blossom in my chest as I heard her whisper the words. I had made Winry cry yet again. I was such an idiot.

"Oh, Win," I sighed, reaching a hand up to stroke her hair. "I'm so sorry. I've messed things up too much for you. I need to set things right." I then looked up at the sky, and noticed that the sky seemed darker than it had before.

Maybe that was because the stars had disappeared.

I then realized that darkness was all around me instead of just above me. Winry wasn't hugging me; I was alone.

"Dammit!" I yelled loudly, clenching my hands into fists.

"Where am I?" I continued to yell, trying to find something anything without the darkness. No answer came. "Tell me where the hell I am! What's going on? Somebody answer me!"

I barely was able to catch a hoarse whisper float through the air, but I couldn't make out the words it was saying. I strained my ears and leaned forward, though I wasn't sure whether the whispering was coming from in front of me or behind me.

Finally, finally I managed to figure out what it was telling me, though I had no clue what the three words possibly meant.

"…_Death is coming…"_

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_And an ominous ending to leave you all with, muahaha. That a bit better, agent? It had better be, because I ain't writing no more chapters until you manage to do a bit. In the meantime, you people leave reviews. Let's hope agent's muse decides to actually be helpful instead of scaring away my muse. ;)_


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